News - Secret debug mode uncovered in AMD CPUs

[HEXUS]

Mode hidden in most chips released this decade now available to hackers and coders everywhere.

Read more.

[Noxvayl]

Pedantic again but I found a grammatical error in the article.

", all AMD chips starting with the Athlon XP have a firmware-based developer mode built in."

"the" doesn't fit in with the rest of the sentence...



Back to topic, this guy has way too much spare time. It is quite a find though, and I'm sure AMD are pissed off. I wonder what he plans on achieving with this debug mode.

[jim]

Makes perfect sense to me Exhail?

Anyway, yeah, will be interesting to see what actually comes of it. Somehow, I can't help feeling like it might blow over without much actual end product.

[Noxvayl]

Makes perfect sense to me Exhail?

It's incorrect English all the same.

[scaryjim]

It's incorrect English all the same.

No it's not. It could maybe use commas to separate sub-clause "starting with the Athlon XP" from the rest of the sentence, but that's a matter of style and the sentence is perfectly acceptable as is. In fact, it would be incorrect English without the "the". Perhaps you're trying to read the sentence with a different meaning than the intended one?

[Noxvayl]

No it's not. It could maybe use commas to separate sub-clause "starting with the Athlon XP" from the rest of the sentence, but that's a matter of style and the sentence is perfectly acceptable as is. In fact, it would be incorrect English without the "the". Perhaps you're trying to read the sentence with a different meaning than the intended one?

"Athlon XP" is not a noun... It is an adjective in this sentence. "the" Cannot refer to an adjective, it requires a noun as a reference.

This is the correct use of words for that sentence:
", all AMD chips starting with Athlon XP have a firmware-based developer mode built in."

Here is a good article you should read: http://www.sirlin.net/articles/writi...ibilities.html

[jim]

Athlon XP is as much a noun in that sentence as AMD chip is. Still no idea where you're coming from.

[Noxvayl]

Athlon XP is as much a noun in that sentence as AMD chip is. Still no idea where you're coming from.

... "AMD chip" isn't a noun, "chip" is the noun. AMD is referring to the noun (chip) just like Athlon XP is. Neither of them are nouns though.

Would this sentence be correct to you: "all dogs that are the brown seem less dirty than they actually are."

Same mistake.

[jim]

That's just being ridiculous though.

I have an Athlon XP - noun
I have a brown - makes no sense, brown cannot be a noun

[Stoo]

So, anyone feel like commenting on the subject of the article, or are you just going to debate whether the content is correctly worded or not?

[jim]

To be fair, I tried to. Looks like we're still going the other way though!

[Noxvayl]

That's just being ridiculous though.

I have an Athlon XP - noun
I have a brown - makes no sense, brown cannot be a noun

An Athlon XP what? Where is the referent?

Athlon XP is empty without a referent just like brown is.

Sorry Stoo, I did comment on the topic initially. I guess I like to have something I know about to discuss, don't know much about a debug mode on AMD Athlon XP CPU's.

[jim]

An Athlon XP what? Where is the referent?

Athlon XP is empty without a referent just like brown is.

Sorry Stoo, I did comment on the topic initially. I guess I like to have something I know about to discuss, don't know much about a debug mode on AMD Athlon XP CPU's.

So on the same basis, it's wrong to say "I drive a Ford". Even if some style manual somewhere says that you are correct, it's not true to modern English.

And no, by modern English, I don't mean that "C u l8r" is now acceptable.

[Noxvayl]

So on the same basis, it's wrong to say "I drive a Ford". Even if some style manual somewhere says that you are correct, it's not true to modern English.

And no, by modern English, I don't mean that "C u l8r" is now acceptable.

"I drive a Ford" has an inference of the "Ford" being a car because of the word drive used (drive is almost exclusively used in reference to a car).

Modern English is a vague term. Generally speaking modern English is more accurately described as slang because people use way too many short cuts and totally skip any referent, like your examples. It is imprecise and often misleading as well. So yes by that you are correct.

However "... all AMD Chips starting with the Athlon XP..." is even bad slang.

[jim]

I take it then that you would be grammatically (if not stylistically) satisfied with

"all AMD chips starting with the Athlon XP processor have a firmware-based developer mode built in."

[scaryjim]

Chatting to the professional editor next to me, we're both agreed that

a) "Athlon XP" is a proper noun: it is the name of a family of processors, and is always capitalised.
and b) even if it wasn't, common usage would allow "Athlon XP" to be used as a noun, particularly in contexts where it would be easily understood (e.g. on a technology news & reviews website).

As to the actual content of the article, I'm not sure there is a lot to say really. Are there practical benefits to enabling a debug mode in your processor? Does it have any real world usage scenarios? It's a kind of interesting miscellany, but apart from that...