Finally got around to looking into the AMD 600 thermal problem Ronnie reported. It turns up the device has an XC3028L and *not* an XC3028. So it required different firmware.
Tweaked the code to use the right firmware and like magic no more thermal problem. The device also draws about 40 ma less power.
Will put together a patch to send the v4l-dvb mailing list. Would be good to see if I can get this in for 2.6.27 since it's a pretty serious bug.