Well, multicore CPUs are generally manufactured with a higher core count than they are sold as. Automated testing detects defects and bins individual wafers bas

Well, multicore CPUs are generally manufactured with a higher core count than they are sold as. Automated testing detects defects and bins individual wafers based on the maximum clock frequency at which they run without errors. So in some sense, CPUs are robust to some flaws in the lithography process by virtue of disabling broken cores/cache banks. Of course, this isn't done dynamically like a brain.