[Info-vax] Itanium Poulson a game changer

[David Froble]

Keith Parris wrote:
> On 2/23/2013 5:05 AM, Neil Rieck wrote:
>> This article says Poulson is an 8-core chip while I seem to recall
>> previous publications saying 4-8 cores (never knew what that meant
>  > other than the chip might be available in two versions but that
>  > was just speculation on my part). Does anyone know the correct answer?
> 
> It is correct to say that Poulson is an 8-core chip. You can buy Itanium 
> 9560 or 9540 chips which have 8 cores. Yet you can buy an Itanium 9550 
> or 9520 which are quad-core and yet are still Poulson chips. That may be 
> where the "4-8 cores" came from.
> 
> Similarly, Tukwila is a 4-core chip. You can buy quad-core Itanium 9350, 
> 9340, 9330, and 9320 chips. Yet you can buy dual-core Tukwila Itanium 
> 9310 chips.
> 
> See 
> http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/itanium-9300-9500-datasheet.pdf 
> 
> 
> I presume this is probably a way to increase yields by using chips which 
> fail qualification tests on one or more cores, by permanently disabling 
> the defective cores and selling the chip at a reduced price with a 
> reduced number of cores.
> 

AMD's Phenom II is a 4 core chip.  They also sold a 2-core version at a 
reduced price.  The 2-core chips were actually the 4-core chip, with 2, 
3, or 4 working cores.

It was basically a method to get some income from imperfect chips, and a 
price point.  It was pot luck.  Sometimes you could "unlock" 1 or 2 more 
cores, and some got a 4 core chip for the price of 2 cores.

What was amusing were those who wanted a cheap 4-core chip, and 
complained when 1 or 2 cores actually were defective and not usable.