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UncaDanno · 11-01-2000, 07:00 AM

Bailey's right. Back in the olden days when P100s were hot stuff, I read an article that outlined Intel's process:

The chips are all made with the same die. (Each "generation" of the chip has its own die).
A certain percentage (back then it was ~75%) would test out at the top speed for that generation of the chip. These were labeled with that speed and adorned with the hotrod heat sink.
The chips that failed to pass the speed test were passed to the next test. Also, once the quota for the highest speed was met, ALL the chips would pass to the next test.
A higher percentage of the chips (~95%) would test out at the next-highest speed. This includes the ones that were passed on to this level because the high-end quota had been met. The ones that would pass were labeled with this speed and given the next-to-hotrod heat sink.
They had determined that all chips could pass the speed test for the slow end of the current "generation" of chips.
So this means that the meager few that failed the mid-range speed test and ALL OTHER chips that were passed on after both the top- and mid-range quotas were met would be labeled as the low-end chips.

A lot of folks would buy a P75 chip, change the dip switches in the mobo, and, viola!, they had a P100. That ran "kinda hot".

11-01-2000, 07:00 AM	#9
UncaDanno Member (9 bit) Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Midland, NC, USA Posts: 292	Bailey's right. Back in the olden days when P100s were hot stuff, I read an article that outlined Intel's process: The chips are all made with the same die. (Each "generation" of the chip has its own die). A certain percentage (back then it was ~75%) would test out at the top speed for that generation of the chip. These were labeled with that speed and adorned with the hotrod heat sink. The chips that failed to pass the speed test were passed to the next test. Also, once the quota for the highest speed was met, ALL the chips would pass to the next test. A higher percentage of the chips (~95%) would test out at the next-highest speed. This includes the ones that were passed on to this level because the high-end quota had been met. The ones that would pass were labeled with this speed and given the next-to-hotrod heat sink. They had determined that all chips could pass the speed test for the slow end of the current "generation" of chips. So this means that the meager few that failed the mid-range speed test and ALL OTHER chips that were passed on after both the top- and mid-range quotas were met would be labeled as the low-end chips. A lot of folks would buy a P75 chip, change the dip switches in the mobo, and, viola!, they had a P100. That ran "kinda hot".