BACKGROUND

The manufacture of chips, such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or central processing units (CPUs), is a complex process. Small variations in material across the wafer from which a chip is formed can cause significant differences in performance. Apart from material variations, there are manufacturing process-related variations in chemical depositions, lithography, metal deposition, temperature controls, and so on, which can further result in differences between chips.

Chip manufacturers often resort to a binning strategy in which chips are collected into different bins based on performance, then the bins are separately sold, some as part of a lottery. Each bin is guaranteed to have some stock performance, but anything beyond that depends upon the buyer's luck.

The chips that are part of a silicon lottery are unlocked, enabling the user to employ overclocking, or increasing the operating frequency, on them. Some gaming systems, for example, are sold with unlocked CPUs, whether from silicon lottery purchases or from other sources. These gaming systems may lack tools to facilitate overclocking, and thus the opportunity to enhance system performance is missed.

Overclocking may be utilized successfully by those with an in-depth knowledge of computer architecture and tools for extracting the performance out of the silicon. For others, hours of frustration and risk may accompany such endeavors.

