Page 103 - A Practical Guide from Design Planning to Manufacturing

78 Chapter Three

design was being sold in all the desktop markets. At the end of 2003, the
Gallatin project added 2 MB of level 3 cache to the Northwood design
and was sold as the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition.
It is common for identical processor die to be sold into different market
segments. Fuses are set by the manufacturer to fix the processor fre-
quency and bus speed. Parts of the cache memory and special instruc-
tion extensions may be enabled or disabled. The same die may also be
sold in different types of packages. In these ways, the manufacturer cre-
ates varying levels of performance to be sold at different prices.
Figure 3-2 shows in 2003 the same Northwood design being sold as a
Pentium 4 in the high-end and mainstream desktop markets as well as
a Celeron in the value market. The die in the Celeron product is iden-
tical to die used in the Pentium 4 but set to run at lower frequency, a
lower bus speed, and with half of the cache disabled. It would be possi-
ble to have a separate design with only half the cache that would have a
smaller die size and cost less to produce. However, this would require
careful planning for future demand to make sure enough of each type
of design was available. It is far simpler to produce a single design and
then set fuses to enable or disable features as needed.
It can seem unfair that the manufacturer is intentionally “crippling”
their value products. The die has a full-sized cache, but the customer
isn’t allowed to use it. The manufacturing cost of the product would be
no different if half the cache weren’t disabled. The best parallel to this
situation might be the cable TV business. Cable companies typical
charge more for access to premium channels even though their costs do
not change at all based on what the customer is watching. Doing this
allows different customers to pay varying amounts depending on what
features they are using. The alternative would be to charge everyone the
same, which would let those who would pay for premium features have
a discount but force everyone else to pay for features they don’t really
need. By charging different rates, the customer is given more choices and
able to pay for only what they want.
Repackaging and partially disabling processor designs allow for more
consumer choice in the same way. Some customers may not need the full
bus speed or full cache size. By creating products with these features
disabled a wider range of prices are offered and the customer has more
options. The goal is not to deny good products to customers but to charge
them for only what they need.
Smaller companies with fewer products may target only some mar-
kets and may not be as concerned about positioning their own products
relative to each other, but they must still create a roadmap to plan the
positioning of their products relative to competitors. Once a target
market and features have been identified, design planning addresses
how the design is to be made.