Intel CPU arcana: Haswell virtualization and Transactional Sychronization together

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 10:33:00PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> Haswell is the new Intel generation of processors being rolled out over 
> the coming months.  As usual, it comes with a few new features.
> 
> At the TLUG meeting, I was surprised to hear that Intel CPU chips with the 
> new TSX feature 
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_Synchronization_Extensions> 
> would not have the virtualization features (VT-x, VT-d, etc.).
> 
> This turns out not to be the case.  For example, the Intel Core i7-4770 
> has both
> <http://ark.intel.com/products/75122>
> 
> That is a top-of-the-line consumer processor 
> <http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/asus-asus-m51-desktop-pc-intel-core-i7-4770-2tb-hdd-10gb-ram-windows-8-m51ac/10254786.aspx?path=72d164b9e11a45b5dfc40adbe7b002cfen02&SearchPageIndex=1>
> 
> <http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=81326&vpn=BX80646I74770&manufacture=Intel&promoid=1195>
> 
> As far as I can tell, the i5-4670 is almost the same (no hyperthreading, 
> 6MiB L3 cache instead of 8MiB, slightly slower turbo).  And it is quite a 
> bit cheaper.

intel likes to arbitrarily remove features from some models of a chip,
even though the die always contains the features.

For some reason they think this makes sense.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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