[Arm-netbook] ppcnotebook

[mike.valk at gmail.com]

2017-09-12 15:15 GMT+02:00 Hendrik Boom <hendrik at topoi.pooq.com>:
> Wasn't the power processor used in Sony's playstations a while back,
> with something like five or six CPUs and some other thing to
> coordinate them?

Yes the PS3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(microprocessor)

And they used repeatatly in a cluster setup, US Air Force had a setup
of 1760 PS3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster


> I heard they got around the yield problem by making
> them all with extra processors so they could make a subset of
> them that happened to work available in the actual delivered machine.

That's a common practice these days.

Small defects hinder speed. Thus sell them with a lower speed rating.
That's why overclocking yields different results for different cpu's
the CPU's are sold batched on the lowest common.

With bigger defects they can overcome by adjusting microcode to compensate.

With the rise of multi core. Defect cores are disabled and those CPU's
are sold as cpu's with less cores. Sometimes you can get lucky and can
re-enable core's.

So same CPU is sold in different guises. Just according to quality and
sometimes demand.