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To: aleph0 who wrote (231487)	4/25/2007 1:47:47 PM
From: combjelly	Respond to of 275872

"If 1 or more cores were defect, how could one "flag" this such that the Die knows this ?" There are several ways. The most likely is a link that can be cut with a laser. This is often done to disable certain functionality and/or change behavior.

To: aleph0 who wrote (231487)	4/25/2007 1:52:15 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

If 1 or more cores were defect, how could one "flag" this such that the Die knows this ? Is it "simply" a matter of setting a flag for example ? ... or does one have to "tweak" some connections or what ? There must be fuses present to make exactly what you are saying possible. There is a functionality to disable individual cores in BIOSs (at least I have seen it in benchmarks of Intel QC chips). Those are temporary, blowing fuses in testing is permanent. Also, there is a talk of functionality to fully power down a core, on demand, so there should be no problem to power it down permanently in testing / packaging. you would do this so that the disabled core is not using up any power. Joe