Different processor speeds with same steppings

[Shivian]

Well I saw a bit of this mentioned in another thread but I thought I'd not go off topic and make a new thread.

So the question is when a new stepping is released with different stock speeds, how does AMD/Intel decide what speeds they use? I mean is there some quality/stability test for individual chips or to they just randomly throw chips in different baskets or what?

Apologies if this has already been asked somewhere.

Edit: Oops I can't fix the typo in subject :(

[Cool Canuck]

That is what they use to do and probably still do and that is why you can overclock the low end of the series more than the top. I'm sure they run them to make sure they do the advertised speed but yea, they throw them in the basket that they need and charge more for the higher speeds. This was true of the Durons, T-Birds and XPs

[CCW]

These should clear it up:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11215&highlight=steppings

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13383&highlight=steppings

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8249&highlight=steppings

Liquid3D has wrote many articles on this sort of topic.

Enjoy,

CRaig

[Shivian]

Sweet thanks