Intel taking 6-core route for broken 8-core CPUs

jmke · 13th February 2009, 10:17

One major part of the Xeon presentation is Intel's "cache and core recovery" scheme, which lets the company salvage a usable part from a defective chip by disabling the defective regions and selling the chip with a lower core count or cache amount.

So for instance, if testing and validation finds a defect in a cache slice on a chip, then Intel can disable that slice and sell the chip with lower cache. And likewise with cores, so that you might buy a six-core chip from Intel that was originally produced as an 8-core Xeon but had two defective cores.

http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news...e-recovery.ars

jmke · 13th February 2009, 10:17

September 2007:

Quote:

Asked in a press conference following his Intel Developer Forum keynote how Intel might respond to AMD's recent announcement of a planned three-core processor for early 2008, Otellini offered a brief but savage response: "We see a distinct advantage in having all the cores on our die work."

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/14512/1154/

Rutar · 13th February 2009, 11:59

It seems to be a consequence when you put all cores on one die the yields suffer and you have to resort to this method.

Maybe all cores on one die is a stupid move.

jmke · 13th February 2009, 13:06

stupid move in respect to product yields; intelligent move in respect to performance and power usage

13th February 2009, 10:17	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 78,423	Intel taking 6-core route for broken 8-core CPUs One major part of the Xeon presentation is Intel's "cache and core recovery" scheme, which lets the company salvage a usable part from a defective chip by disabling the defective regions and selling the chip with a lower core count or cache amount. So for instance, if testing and validation finds a defect in a cache slice on a chip, then Intel can disable that slice and sell the chip with lower cache. And likewise with cores, so that you might buy a six-core chip from Intel that was originally produced as an 8-core Xeon but had two defective cores. http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news...e-recovery.ars __________________

13th February 2009, 13:06	#4
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 78,423	stupid move in respect to product yields; intelligent move in respect to performance and power usage __________________

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Leaked Intel Roadmap Details New Fall Core CPUs	jmke	WebNews	0	1st June 2010 09:19
88 percent of Intel CPUs in Q1 2011 to be Core 2010	jmke	WebNews	2	12th May 2010 22:41
Intel Plans Core i7 and Core i5 CPUs for Notebooks in 2010	jmke	WebNews	0	13th November 2009 13:00
Early sales of Core i5 and i7 CPUs unlikely to stop despite Intel warning	jmke	WebNews	1	21st August 2009 23:21
QPI Unlocked on recent Intel Core i7 920 and 940 CPUs	jmke	WebNews	4	7th March 2009 08:37
Intel to Bundle Solid State Drives with Core i7 CPUs	jmke	WebNews	1	17th February 2009 20:04
Intel Core i7 makes up for 1% of consumer CPUs	jmke	WebNews	0	10th February 2009 19:56
Noctua presents NH-U12P SE1366 for Intel Core i7 CPUs	jmke	WebNews	0	12th November 2008 20:46
Intel Nehalem to be released as Core i7 CPUs	jmke	WebNews	0	8th August 2008 15:42
Critical update for Intel Core CPUs is out	Sidney	WebNews	7	27th June 2007 16:58

13th February 2009, 11:59	#3
Rutar Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 2,243	It seems to be a consequence when you put all cores on one die the yields suffer and you have to resort to this method. Maybe all cores on one die is a stupid move.