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> We build 8 core CPUs and blow e-fuses in the factory to make them 4 cores. As resources dwindle and the planet fills with e-waste this disgusting, unethical w

> We build 8 core CPUs and blow e-fuses in the factory to make them 4 cores. As resources dwindle and the planet fills with e-waste this disgusting, unethical wanton destruction of value continues because we've normalised it. This is a bad follow-on example because artificial price differentiation is sometimes what it takes to make a business viable. Making an actually worse model in the processor case has far more fixed costs than re-using the existing pipeline. The business wouldn’t be viable selling all of the processors at lower nor would it be as strong leaving out the lower income segment. The alternative world is you get no affordable processor at all and the 8-core version costs 200% more due to the volume lost. Finally, this ignores that processors selected for lower tiers can be chosen precisely because they didn’t meet the bar for the high performance batch. So if they had proceeded to treat it as an 8-core it would have had thermal issues and an 80% reduced life.

ambicapter 4y ago
> artificial price differentiation is sometimes what it takes to make a business viable Sometimes wage theft is what it takes to make a business viable, so I don't really buy this as an argument. > processors selected for lower tiers can be chosen precisely because they didn’t meet the bar for the high performance batch This is a better argument > The alternative world is you get no affordable processor at all You probably do, just maybe their performance doesn't double every year. I would say that's probably an interesting tradeoff to make, depending on how catastrophic one thinks the state of the world is today.
ipaddr 4y ago
In your scene you would see increased buying and volume at the higher price point which would offset the money lost at the lower tier.
goodpoint 4y ago
> The alternative world is you get no affordable processor at all and the 8-core version costs 200% more due to the volume lost. No, you are making up a false dichotomy. There are many alternative worlds, including the ones where CPUs have no proprietary "intellectual property".

ambicapter 4y ago

> artificial price differentiation is sometimes what it takes to make a business viable Sometimes wage theft is what it takes to make a business viable, so I don't really buy this as an argument. > processors selected for lower tiers can be chosen precisely because they didn’t meet the bar for the high performance batch This is a better argument > The alternative world is you get no affordable processor at all You probably do, just maybe their performance doesn't double every year. I would say that's probably an interesting tradeoff to make, depending on how catastrophic one thinks the state of the world is today.

ipaddr 4y ago

In your scene you would see increased buying and volume at the higher price point which would offset the money lost at the lower tier.

goodpoint 4y ago

> The alternative world is you get no affordable processor at all and the 8-core version costs 200% more due to the volume lost. No, you are making up a false dichotomy. There are many alternative worlds, including the ones where CPUs have no proprietary "intellectual property".