AMD had launched two new triple core 45nm Phenom II X3 processors recently. Technically, the fourth core exists on the CPU die, but is shut off at the factory. A new BIOS hack reportedly can enable this inactive fourth core on a Biostar motherboard.

Korean website Playware demonstrated an American Metagrands BIOS hack that turned triple-core AMD Phenom II into quad-core. The triple core 2.6GHz AMD Phenom II X3 710 was used with a Biostar TA790GX 128M motherboard. An option in BIOS called Auto Clock Caliberation needs to be set to Auto and the fourth core of the triple-core AMD Phenom II will show up.

According to the site, the fourth core left impacts on the benchmarks posted. Also, the processor ran at an overclocked speed of 3.1GHz. Basically, this hack will be possible only on motherboards having SB750 southbridge with AMD chipset and a compatible BIOS featuring Advanced Clock Caliberation support.

AMD Phenom II X3 710 is currently listed at $119 (approx. Rs. 5950) at Newegg.com.