Intel Thermal Test Vehicle

Something different! You're actually not looking at a processor but at a vehicle: a Thermal Test Vehicle (TTV) used for heat generation.

Why only a 'chip' for heat? Simple: to test coolers. This chip, which classifies as an Intel Xeon 50xx 'Dempsey' with product number 80555, will be fed with a +12V rail. A normal chip would need working transistors to make heat and as transistors work variable you will never get a situation in which all transistors are being used at the same time. This QGC0 TTV always generates the same heat and thus cooling test results are more reliable.

On the picture you see the CPU with a thermal diode in it. A small groove is carved into the heatspreader of the CPU in which the diode will be installed. This allows reading the temperature in the middle (above the chip, under the heatsink).

The chip will fit into a motherboard designed for thermal testing, the Thermal Test Board (TTB). Unfortunatly I have a LGA771 (for Xeon CPU's) TTV and a LGA775 (for desktop CPU's) TTB. Modifiying the TTB to fit LGA771 chips didn't work somehow. Anyhow, to get back to the testing method: the TTB is a clean motherboard without a northbridge and components. Only some dummy components are installed like a northbridge heatsink, a PCIe 16x slot, some capacitors and a DDR2-SDRAM slot. Also the I/O connectors on the back of the board (mini DIN, USB, sound, etc) are installed. The board has some lines on the PCB which indicate the keep-out-zone. The CPU cooler is not allowed to reach this space. To verify this the board came with three plastic bars which can be put in place of the keep-out-zone.