4 ms·
For chips, it’s possible for a chip to go through the production process, but have a defect in part of it. When that happens, the manufacturer disabled access
by CaliforniaKarl 7y ago
For chips, it’s possible for a chip to go through the production process, but have a defect in part of it. When that happens, the manufacturer disabled access to that part, and sells it as a lower-capability product.
On the other hand, if everything came out good, then the manufacturer sells the part as the high-end product.
- asveikau 7y agoYeah, I thought of when I first followed overclocking in the late 90s, and Intel had a reputation for selling artificially slow chips in those circles. But in that case rating the appropriate clock is a subjective exercise, and they don't want the part to start failing if pushed to its limits. GP here made it sound like it was rather more harmless in this case, not sure if that is a mistaken impression of mine or what.
- Osiris 7y agoUnless demand for the less expensive part exceeds the defect rate. AMD CPUs, especially the 3-core parts, were often unlockable by re-enabling the disabled cores in BIOS. Lucky buyers could get 4 cores for the price of 3.