The Source of Intel's Cougar Point SATA Bug ( Cougar Point is the chipset for Sandy Bridge MoBos)

Anandtech ^ | 1/31/2011 6:05:00 PM | Anand Lal Shimpi

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I just got off the phone with Intel’s Steve Smith (VP and Director of Intel Client PC Operations and Enabling) and got some more detail on this morning’s 6-series chipset/SATA bug.

The Problem

Cougar Point (Intel’s 6-series chipsets: H67/P67) has two sets of SATA ports: four that support 3Gbps operation, and two that support 6Gbps operation. Each set of ports requires its own PLL source.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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Final Words

Intel maintains that Sandy Bridge CPUs are not affected, and current users are highly unlikely to encounter the issue even under heavy loads. So far Intel has only been able to document the issue after running extended testing at high temperatures (in a thermal chamber) and voltages. My recommendation is to try to only use ports 0 & 1 (the 6Gbps ports) on your 6-series motherboard until you get a replacement in place.

[Dr. Sivana]

Kudos to Intel for getting on top of this. They learned from the original Pentium 60 Mhz math bug.