Thanks for the explanation but still not sure I understand, to put it in terms I can. Say an engine is supposed to put out 540bhp but it varies slightly from engine to engine during production. Say you then have one out the production line that only puts out only 490bhp. Are you saying Apple would still use this and sell it in a lower-trim version of that same car? Are you basically saying the lower spec iPad Pros are getting chips that don’t work to their full potential and therefore performance is lower?
If I’ve understood correctly that is appalling (apart from a sustainability perspective but even then the consumer should get a discount and be aware)
It’s not appalling, it’s normal and is the way semi conductors have been produced since the beginning.
Yields from wafers are not 100%, defective cores are normal. Not all cores are created equally, think of it more like cake baking than injection moulding. The term ‘silicon lottery’ exists for a reason.
Sections of the wafer with defects, have those cores disabled and they are sold as lower tier products.
The more complex the chip, the lower the yields, if you can’t sell the ‘didn’t quite make’ it chips as something else, the prices would skyrocket.
A 6 core AMD chiplet started life with the intention of it being an 8 core, 2 were defective and layered off and it was put into a X600 product instead of a X800 product. An 5600 is a chip that didn’t quite meet the requirements of one that could be sold as a slightly faster 5600X.
It’s actually laptops and mobile which get the best chips. These are the best chips that need less voltage to work for the same speed. Desktop chips tend to be the ones that use more power to get them to work but they have the cooling to deal with it.
