Engineering sample

Engineering samples are the beta versions of integrated circuits that are meant to be used for compatibility qualification or as demonstrators.

[1] They are usually loaned to OEM manufacturers prior to the chip's commercial release to allow product development or display.

Some engineering samples, such as Pentium 4 processors were rare and favoured[citation needed] for having unlocked base-clock multipliers.

[citation needed] Asian sellers were selling the Core 2 processors at major profit.

[citation needed] While engineering sample CPUs do occasionally appear on secondhand markets such as eBay, they are generally not authorized for resale and can suffer from unpredictable performance issues, compatibility issues, and lack of warranty support options.