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.
Engineering samples are usually handed out under a non-disclosure agreement or another type of confidentiality agreement.
Some engineering samples, such as Pentium 4 processors were rare and favoured[citation needed] for having unlocked base-clock multipliers. More recently[when?], Core 2 engineering samples have become more common and popular.[citation needed] Asian sellers were selling the Core 2 processors at major profit.[citation needed] Some engineering samples have been put through strenuous tests.[citation needed]
Engineering sample processors are also offered on a technical loan to some full-time employees at Intel, and are usually desktop extreme edition processors.[citation needed]
