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Comment by tedunangst | Hacker News Reader

Fine print: The X60 has a Core2 CPU with a variety of errata which require proprietary microcode to fix (typically applied by the Lenovo BIOS).

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That's interesting because I can't seem to find the exact CPU that these laptops ship with anywhere on the page. The ThinkWiki page shows that there are Core Duo (not 2!) and Core Solo variants of this laptop that exist as well.

afaik, the Core models are a very small fraction of the total sold. They were replaced by Core2 models very quickly. I don't think there's enough Core models to reliably source used ones.

If I'm not mistaken, thinkwiki gets their info from the thinkpad service manuals. (I have one too). There are a billion configurations of every laptop, most of which you'll never see because they were restricted to one region or market (or govt or edu). Some of them probably never even made it into production, but they exist as a row in a database.

This. I worked for a company that had lots (3000+) T60's and they were all Core2 units.

Intel packages a "microcode" Linux module to inject said fixes at OS boot. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&...

I don't think that a FSF certified Free software Linux distribution ships with that module, as that microcode blob is closed source.

Well, no, the module is Free and ships with the kernel, but the user must download the microcode blob on their own.

I had a T60 with Core Duo CPU.

AFAIK they were only sold for a couple of months.

I have an X60 that can't run a 64 bit Linux, as I found out when I tried to boot the RHEL 7 beta installer. I'm assuming that is a Core Duo rather than a Core Duo 2.

My sample is a Type 1706-CT0 with product ID 1706WB5 and it was manufactured December 2006 (06/12 on the end of the serial number). Did I get 'lucky'?

I don't think your issues regarding 64bit Linux have anything to do with CPU.

Mine ran x64 just fine on Ubuntu.

My particular X60 has an Intel T2400 Core Duo Mobile processor [1] and this processor has a 32 bit width[2]. I picked an early model, and I decided to pick one up of UK ebay days before finding the site mentioned in the OA!

[1] http://www.cnet.com/laptops/lenovo-thinkpad-x60-1706/4507-31...

[2] http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_Duo/Intel-Core%20Duo%20T2...

Oh, wow. I went and checked, my machine had T2600 CPU and indeed the whole series is a 32bit architecture.

I know that these CPU's are supposedly dual Pentium M processors in single package.

They seemed pretty common to me at least. I snagged a couple more T60's C[1]D's with SXGA+ IPS panels pretty cheap this year.

(also, the Panasonic 9-cell batteries are still good.)

If someone wants more details. Read the post and the linked gif in particular.

http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=118296441702631&w=2

It's not like there is nothing proprietary about this CPU prior to applying the microcode update it.

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