Here's an interesting development

[unixronin]

Amid continuing problems getting its four-core processors to market, it appears AMD will be repackaging four-core processors with minor faults on one core and selling them as triple-core processors.

Now tell me:  What was your first thought?

Yeah.  Mine was, "I wonder how long it's going to be before somebody hacks up a fault-tolerant Linux/BSD/whatever (or perhaps a completely custom OS) that runs a separate kernel thread on each core, with cross-checking and two-of-three majority voting?"

I mean, come on.  It's the obvious use for a triple-core processor.

Comments

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, I've known for months that the tri-core Phenoms will be quad-core chips with one core disabled. If AMD prices them aggressively, they will provide outstanding value. It'll be interesting to see how they go. For example, what if they have a chip where all four cores run perfect at 2.2 GHz but only three run perfect at 2.5? Do they sell it as a 9550 or 7700?