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.The funny thing is that not so long ago, Intel bashed AMD for selling quad-cores with one defective core as triple-core processors.
The company claims that it can effectively isolate the nonfunctioning cache and cores, so that these extra parts don't increase the chip's power draw by letting through leakage current.
Intel to turn broken eight-cores into six-core CPUs
Posted on Tuesday, February 10 2009 @ 21:43 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck