Comment Re:IIRC Intel planned similar in the early 2000s (Score 1) 141
What do you think stops Intel from creating lower spec CPUs? Presumably fewer transistors means more per wafer (or same size wafer but cheaper production process.)
Design effort, production effort, power efficiencies, cost etc. Design a new CPU for an advanced manufacturing process and this new CPU will be power-efficient, fast, capable etc. Designing a range of different CPU dies for different market shares costs more and takes more effort. Intel are only going to design and produce one Sapphire Rapids die (with possible point revisions as production goes on) and if they make too many good-slash-perfect ones the market for lesser versions of the CPU is going to be lacking in available product. Using this software option to buy or lease extra cores some time after purchase and installation of the chips in servers meets that lower-tier demand.