Chip manufacturer AMD can no longer claim in a Dutch advertising campaign that users of its Athlon 64 processors don't have to worry about viruses.

AMD is currently the only company offering what is calls Enhanced Virus Protection Technology (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Weblets/0,,7832_11104_11105,00.html) on desktop and notebook PCs, but the Dutch advertising board, Reclamecode Commissie (http://www.reclamecode.nl), says AMD's adverts are misleading. Because the technology only works with Windows XP Service Pack 2, protection is limited.

The core of AMD's Enhanced Virus Protection is the so-called 'no-execute' (NX) technology, which can be used to prevent malware from executing out of memory reserved for data. It helps to block buffer overflow attacks (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=buffer%20overflow). ®

Related stories

Intel 3.8GHz P4 570J slips out (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/15/intel_p4_570j/)
Intel delays Xeon E-0 core update to 29 October (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/08/nx_xeons_slip/)
Intel ships 'execute disable' Pentium 4s (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/04/intel_nx_p4s/)
Transmeta ships 90nm Efficeon (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/10/transmeta_90nm_chips_ship/)
WinXP SP2 = security placebo? (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/02/winxpsp2_security_review/)
Corporates can delay XP SP2 auto-update (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/13/sp2_update_deferred/)
Intel 'Nocona' Xeon to get 'no execute' support (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/30/intel_nocona_nx/)
Intel to add NX security to Pentium 4 in Q4 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/08/intel_nx_support/)
Transmeta pledges 'no execute' security support (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/17/transmeta_nx_support/)