4 ms·
Yes, I agree, number of cores and size of L3 are commonly cases cases where functionality is disabled. But do you know which of the other factors listed in the
by nkurz 12y ago
Yes, I agree, number of cores and size of L3 are commonly cases cases where functionality is disabled. But do you know which of the other factors listed in the article that this is true for? For example, are there cases where two processors share the same die but one supports AVX and the other does not? I don't know the answer, but if there are not, this would substantially undercut the argument in the main article.
- wtallis 12y agoSandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge Celerons and Pentiums use the same die as the corresponding Core i3s, but only the i3 supports AVX in the CPU and QuickSync in the GPU. AES instructions aren't available on the i3 but are present on the dual-core i5. Haswell no longer discriminates with QuickSync, and extends AES down to the i3s but still not the Celerons and Pentiums. None of these features are unavailable due to being physically absent. They're just turned off. If Intel's microcode format and DRM were reverse engineered, some of the features could be turned back on.
- nkurz 12y agoThanks for the great info. That was the part I couldn't figure out from the article or the specs.