Can AMD sell quads as duals, just an idea.

Kedas · 08-15-2007, 05:51 AM

I was thinking would AMD make a new design for their dual core or can they actually disable two core's from quadcores when one or two cores are broken.
or just release quads with lower frequency at the price of duals?
Like instead of an 3.0GHz dual core an 1.6GHz quad core.

Both options would increase yields/profit I suppose.

**k0NG0** · 08-15-2007, 06:22 AM

I'm fairly sure they'll do just that. If one or two cores on a quad die are broken, it gets binned as a dual-core, and by blowing fuses or similar the two dormant ones are completely removed electrically from the rest. It's possible they won't see the same performance envelope as a true dual-core, but they'll work as advertised.

Lower frequency quad cores are probably on the horizon as well, although I expect it will be a while. There isn't enough applications for it today to warrant them this early in the Barcelona family lifetime, I'd say.

08-15-2007, 05:51 AM	#1
Kedas Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 623	Can AMD sell quads as duals, just an idea. I was thinking would AMD make a new design for their dual core or can they actually disable two core's from quadcores when one or two cores are broken. or just release quads with lower frequency at the price of duals? Like instead of an 3.0GHz dual core an 1.6GHz quad core. Both options would increase yields/profit I suppose. __________________ In the period that Einstein was active as a professor, one of his students came to him and said: "The questions of this year's exam are the same as last years!?" "True," Einstein said, "but this year all answers are different."[Albert Einstein]
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08-15-2007, 06:22 AM	#2
k0NG0 Remembering TQ Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Sweden Posts: 13,623	I'm fairly sure they'll do just that. If one or two cores on a quad die are broken, it gets binned as a dual-core, and by blowing fuses or similar the two dormant ones are completely removed electrically from the rest. It's possible they won't see the same performance envelope as a true dual-core, but they'll work as advertised. Lower frequency quad cores are probably on the horizon as well, although I expect it will be a while. There isn't enough applications for it today to warrant them this early in the Barcelona family lifetime, I'd say. __________________ Use Firefox - "the one that blocks all the schmutz" Feeling multicore elation? Remember this correlation: Amdahl's Law.
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