Patent ID: 8775112

Claim:
A reduced performance circuit salvage method comprising: preparing a chip for testing; testing said chip; and performing a functional component configuration process on said chip and based upon results of said testing configuring said chip as a reduced performance circuit, wherein tasks are performed at a different performance level in said chip configured as said reduced performance circuit and said chip still be classified as a useful chip, and wherein said functional component configuration process comprises: receiving art indication of a defective functional component; determining if said defective functional component is one of a plurality of similar functional components; disabling said defective functional component if it is one of said plurality of similar functional components; enabling one or more non-defective functional components; and providing notification of said disabling and said enabling to a second component other than said defective functional component, wherein said second component is configured to communicate information to at least one of said plurality of similar functional components and bypass said defective functional component to which said second component would otherwise communicate information.