[hajile]

That's only partially true.

For example, AMD sells 12 and 16 core CPUs. The 12 core parts have 2 cores lasered out due to defects. If a particular node is low-yield, then it's not super uncommon to double-up on some parts of the chip and use either the non-defective or best performing one. You'll expect to see a combination of lasering and binning to adjust yields higher.

That said, TSMC N5 has a very good defect rate according to their slides on the subject[0]

[0] https://www.anandtech.com/show/16028/better-yield-on-5nm-tha...

[3JPLW]

Which is likely why there are some "7 core" GPU M1 chips.

[raihansaputra]

Yep for the MBA. I think for devs that can live with 16GB, the cheaper 7GPU MacBook Air is very interesting instead of the MacBook Pro for $300 cheaper.

[bee_rider]

Plus, defects tend to be clustered, which is a pretty lucky effect. Multiple defects on a single core don't really matter if you are throwing the whole thing away.