AMD Responds: Protection Against Thermal Death

To ensure perfect stability during operation, continuous power from a 5 Volt power supply was provided for the electrical switching mechanism, which consisted primarily of a module from Maxim Max 6512 (UT085). How does it work? When the CPU cooler is removed, the thermal diode in the CPU senses the sudden increase in temperature, and this prompts the switching mechanism to quickly turn off the power supply through the green "suspend" circuit.

In other words: the electronic mechanism of the power supply goes into operation at temperatures starting at 85 degrees Celsius. This abruptly switches the motherboard off, along with all other components installed.

Complete specifications for a correct reading of the thermal diode for Athlons with the Palomino core.

The illustration above shows the complete specifications for the thermal diode of the AMD Athlon with a Palomino core.

However, this thermal protection mechanism does not function with motherboards that are currently available on the market. AMD only showed us how a Gigabyte board can be modified through an additional motherboard.

The testing engineers from AMD had installed two LEDs on the extra board to indicate the status. The green LED indicates normal operating status, while the red LED indicates that the power supply has been switched off.