>>>I have a 3-core processor. I just had to have it. Sounds like one of those engines with three cylinders. After ages of everything being 2**n, I now have something odd under the hood. And it works fine.
>>
>>A friend of mine got one. He found that 4th processor can be unlocked and may even work. I unlocked it on his CPU and it works fine but is a little hooter than the rest.
>
>You mean this is like the 8K memories for the old Spectrum - actually 16K where one side didn't work so Sinclair got them really cheap? I.e. a quad core processor where one of the four doesn't work? Wouldn't be anything new - even to me. I wonder why is that, they lock one to have a processor which fits the price niche, or they are selling a series of quarter-faulty quads as trios?

A bit of both, I suspect. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2320531,00.asp

One supposed theoretical "feature" of a 3-core CPU is that there is always exactly 1 communications hop between any 2 cores. This can simplify cache coherency and other inter-core communications. This may not be implemented in the real Phenom triple-cores if they're actually quad-cores with one disabled.