Tiered CPUs?

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The Facts:

• The i7 6700K has great single threaded performance
• 18-core Xeons have great total performance
• Some phones feature CPUs containing a few powerful cores and a few very weak cores used to save power during standby or run background tasks

The Idea:

Could these all be combined into a "perfect CPU"?  What if you had, say, 2 Skylake or better cores (in terms of IPC and frequency), 2 more slightly weaker, and so on all the way down so there were maybe 12 total (give or take).

Could processors be created that provide the high single threaded performance of a "normal" chip when necessary, with the massive total parallel power of a xeon when possible?

I think it could be done - like I said, it's been done in phones more or less.  Will it be attempted?  Would you buy one?  What would it cost?

[wyattzx]

We'll never have the "perfect CPU" until we get to the point that CPU cores can be instructed, and manufactured to be modular. Which is a completely hypothetical idea on its own. A "CPU block" that you plug in to your motherboard that has 18 cores and 36 threads, whilst another block has 4 cores and 4 threads. The idea here is similar to running a Quadro or FirePro GPU alongside a consumer gaming GPU. However, as of now this is nearly, if not impossible, and likely won't be in the future. We'll never be able to design a "one size fits all" chip until we move on from the current design philosophy of CPUs. 

[Flight1sim]

This would not make sense for the manufacturer like intel or AMD to do, why make a perfect cpu when you could sell others? 

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1 minute ago, Flight1sim said:

This would not make sense for the manufacturer like intel or AMD to do, why make a perfect cpu when you could sell others? 

Why make and maintain a ton of inventory divided into many skus when you can sell one chip that's great for everyone?

[Flight1sim]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

Why make and maintain a ton of inventory divided into many skus when you can sell one chip that's great for everyone?

because they don't make money off high end CPU's. The more expensive it gets, the less money they make in the grand scheme of things. They get the majority of their profits from consumer-grade processors for laptops and tablets etc. 

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4 minutes ago, NonaHexa said:

We'll never be able to design a "one size fits all" chip until we move on from the current design philosophy of CPUs. 

True, there would have to be some major changes to make it happen, do do you think they could?  Would they even try, ever?

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1 minute ago, Flight1sim said:

because they don't make money off high end CPU's. The more expensive it gets, the less money they make in the grand scheme of things. They get the majority of their profits from consumer-grade processors for laptops and tablets etc. 

Maybe it wouldn't be a one-size-fits-all that replaces the entire line.  Maybe it would be a "i7"-like offering, intended for consumers who can't decide between a 6700k and a 5960x that they just might gen unlucky when trying to overclock