5960X, 12 cores?

[Jigz1988]

Seeing that the new i7 5960X is, underneath, a 12 core xeon with 4 cores deactivated. Could there be anyway to unlock those extra cores?

[Enderman]

No.

[ERSCreeper]

Seeing that the new i7 5960X is, underneath, a 12 core xeon with 4 cores deactivated. Could there be anyway to unlock those extra cores?

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8426/the-intel-haswell-e-cpu-review-core-i7-5960x-i7-5930k-i7-5820k-tested

[Antistatic12]

Let me grab my glasses, that picture is to small........

[ERSCreeper]

Let me grab my glasses, that picture is to small........

Yup, not sure why it didn't scale

[Sauron]

It isn't, and even if it was you wouln't be able to unlock them.

[Tola]

Its a true 8 core.

[harrynowl]

yes, but they're cut off with a laser. the days of core unlockable cpus died with k10 I think

[n3krO]

Why would they cut off cores from a cpu? Isn't that counter productive?

[Kamina]

Why would they cut off cores from a cpu? Isn't that counter productive?

Probably defective. 

[Glenwing]

Why would they cut off cores from a cpu? Isn't that counter productive?

 

So you can't unlock them

[Queek]

Why would they cut off cores from a cpu? Isn't that counter productive?

Usually because that part of the silicon wafer was defective or not up to the appropriate spec.  The larger that a printed or etched transistor needs to be, the more likely it is that something will go wrong.  

If a particular piece of the wafer isn't up to being a Xeon, they can trim off the less capable parts to make an i7, and so on.  

It's not just that they want to milk more money from us, it is legitimately hard to make a big, powerful cpu.  

[airdeano]

i wouldn't doubt that they were cut-down XEON CPU dies. yes, Intel has their PR

saying "new, advanced, innovative", but it comes down to cost. for a niche market

to fire up a production line to make special 3 CPUs of 5-8% enthusiast market just

isn't smart money spent. the 5820k is a cut down 5930k, 5930k is a cutdown 5960x.

same part, just with features turned off to limit wasted culls. there isn't three lines

of production kicking each part out.

 

these H-E CPUs are very similar to the E5-2600v2 series (22nm) with a slightly

different PCB, IHS and pinpad profile for more pipelines (traces for the DDR4

288-pin RAM 384 extra pinouts vs the older 240-pin DDR3). i could be off-base,

but this is a corporation that watches tenth-of-pennies in cost efforts.