SKU binning doesn't take any fab time. They do have too many SKUs though.

sitkack · 2025-03-18T20:44:07 1742330647

How much has SKU explosion lead to mask set explosion and having to do runs, bank that and switching to another set of masks?

At this point they should just produce Xeons and support at most 2 sockets. I don't care if they fuse off features with cryptographic keys. Ship one piece of silicon to everyone, streamline the shit out of that.

ECC everywhere, no questions asked.

throwaway48476 · 2025-03-19T03:38:45 1742355525

Basically none at all.

I haven't checked in a while but for client there's basically two die masks. In 13th and 14th gen half the SKUs were 12th gen masks.

Mobile is either the same as client or a smaller mobile efficiency die, but only one mobile mask.

For server there's just E cores and P core tiles. The limitation is packaging not fab.

The SKU is just fuses and written at validation after binning.

ECC everywhere would be a far better excuse for enterprises to upgrade their old PCs that 'AI PCs'