noric Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 There is a new bios version from Lenovo site, bringing updated cpu microcodes. http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8huj17us.exeFrom the changelog: Version 1.26 (ThinkPad Edge E420, E520)---------------------------------------[important updates]Nothing.[New functions or enhancements]- Updated the CPU microcode.[Problem fixes]- Corrected the help message for enabling the microphone in the BIOS Setup.Will this bring ivy bridge support? I don't see what other microcode they could have added... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Inferno Fan Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 There is a new bios version from Lenovo site, bringing updated cpu microcodes. http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8huj17us.exeFrom the changelog:Will this bring ivy bridge support? I don't see what other microcode they could have added... E520/E420 is a Sandy Bridge system using a Series-6 chipset and ME 7.x interface firmware. Khenglish speculates in http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/2091-lets-enable-overclocking-all-6-7-series-laptops.html that if a Series-6 system had ME 8.x firmware applied then it would support an Ivy Bridge CPU. Unfortunately nobody has proven that to be the case. Furthermore it's necessary to unlock the firmware descriptor OR pull the BIOS chip out and reprogram it with a SPI burner to be able to program the ME 8.x firmware.Is it worth it? Not imho. Sandy Bridge CPUs are only marginally slower than a Ivy Bridge. Does you care for the faster HD4000 iGPU if using an eGPU? I wouldn't. Do you care for the Series-7 integrated USB 3.0? They're the only upgrades going from Sandy to Ivy Bridge. Incidentally my investigation finding, at least comparing a 2560P to a 2570P, that the Sandy Bridge platform has lower idle power consumption. That's presumably due to an unoptimized USB 3.0 implementation in the chipset. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noric Posted December 19, 2013 Author Share Posted December 19, 2013 E520/E420 is a Sandy Bridge system using a Series-6 chipset and ME 7.x interface firmware. Khenglish speculates in http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/2091-lets-enable-overclocking-all-6-7-series-laptops.html that if a Series-6 system had ME 8.x firmware applied then it would support an Ivy Bridge CPU. Unfortunately nobody has proven that to be the case. Furthermore it's necessary to unlock the firmware descriptor OR pull the BIOS chip out and reprogram it with a SPI burner to be able to program the ME 8.x firmware.Is it worth it? Not imho. Sandy Bridge CPUs are only marginally slower than a Ivy Bridge. Does you care for the faster HD4000 iGPU if using an eGPU? I wouldn't. Do you care for the Series-7 integrated USB 3.0? They're the only upgrades going from Sandy to Ivy Bridge. Incidentally my investigation finding, at least comparing a 2560P to a 2570P, that the Sandy Bridge platform has lower idle power consumption. That's presumably due to an unoptimized USB 3.0 implementation in the chipset.Thank you. I know that IB improvements over SB are mostly negligible. However, if the upgrade to IB were possibile out of the box by just flashing this new bios, it would be a nice option for those who are about to upgrade. For example, I have a dual core cpu and plan to plug in a quad core. If this new bios supported IB, I would obviously go for an IB i7.The point is: I don't see what other microcodes they could have implemented, other than ivy bridge's. SB cpus all share the same microcode, that I'm aware of: both earlier cpus (e.g.: 2720qm) and newer cpus (e.g. 2760qm). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Inferno Fan Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Thank you. I know that IB improvements over SB are mostly negligible. However, if the upgrade to IB were possibile out of the box by just flashing this new bios, it would be a nice option for those who are about to upgrade. For example, I have a dual core cpu and plan to plug in a quad core. If this new bios supported IB, I would obviously go for an IB i7.The point is: I don't see what other microcodes they could have implemented, other than ivy bridge's. SB cpus all share the same microcode, that I'm aware of: both earlier cpus (e.g.: 2720qm) and newer cpus (e.g. 2760qm).It would require a ME 7.x -> 8.x firmware upgrade to support Ivy Bridge CPUs and a hack one at that. Intel do not support Intel 3rd gen CPUs on Series-6 chipsets. That means their partners like Lenovo will not either. I'm still waiting for some brave soul, perhaps a HP 2560P owner, to try to flash ME 8.x firmware (as used on Series-7 chipset) on their system and see what happens. If it boots and CPU has turbo clocks then it would be a success and a IVB CPU test needs to be done next. Agreed, having SB and IVB CPU upgradability on the Series-6 chipset would give more choice when shopping for a upgrade CPU. SB CPUs are otherwise likely cost more than equivalent IVB parts due to being the only CPU available for Series-6 chipsets. Series-7 can use either IVB or SB. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noric Posted December 19, 2013 Author Share Posted December 19, 2013 It would require a ME 7.x -> 8.x firmware upgrade to support Ivy Bridge CPUs and a hack one at that. Intel do not support Intel 3rd gen CPUs on Series-6 chipsets. That means their partners like Lenovo will not either. I'm still waiting for some brave soul, perhaps a HP 2560P owner, to try to flash ME 8.x firmware (as used on Series-7 chipset) on their system and see what happens. If it boots and CPU has turbo clocks then it would be a success and a IVB CPU test needs to be done next. Agreed, having SB and IVB CPU upgradability on the Series-6 chipset would give more choice when shopping for a upgrade CPU. SB CPUs are otherwise likely cost more than equivalent IVB parts due to being the only CPU available for Series-6 chipsets. Series-7 can use either IVB or SB.Well, I thought ME firmware were included in the bios. However, if you say that Intel officially doesn't support this, I doubt that Lenovo will. I wonder what microcode they have implemented, by the way...Thanks for the info, anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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