My understanding is that the main reason for it in the Opteron is to physically protect the expensive processor from getting chiped or crushed, not to help dissipate heat.
Yes. You are correct. AMD had a big issue with fractured die chips being returned. For Athlon's they had to start issuing a large instruction poster in the retail kit as well as adding corner pads to the chip to try to cut back on the huge number of returns and complaints. They moved to the IHS on Opteron to resolve this.
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