How much "crush" can an Athlon core survive?

[SEALTEAMTHREE]

Recently, while installing my new 1.4 GHz Athlon T-bird, my heatsink slid while mounting and shaved a very small amount of the core off while it moved. The amount damaged was barely wider than 1/64th of an inch. I've seen T-birds with large chips out of the core all the way around that still work. Am I correct to think that the core is fine unless it cracks in half or has internal parts exposed?

[lildude]

on both athlon and duron chips, there is a VERY thin layer where there are no core parts. this is the area where amd etches in the writing on the chips like the serial number and stuff.

[Bovon]

You certainly do not have to crack one in half. Some survive a chip, some do not. Look at the following site at a Duron. This guy is designing his own 'shim' of sorts, but he also shows the chip on his Duron.

http://www2.apex.net/users/timwhita/protection.html

The core has over 7000 transistors and other small electronics inside that very thin silicone cover..it dosn't take much of a chip in the right place to kill it.