Not sure, they are saying he hasn't responded.
EDIT: Maybe to clarify, the thread title here is ESRAM yield issues, and your post link just said "yes this is true" so that is still vague.
I could see yield issues 100%.
Down clocking is another thing entirely and maybe that is what they wanted confirmed?
By confirming the yield issues it almost confirms downclocking as well. The latter follows the former in order to boost yields. MS will have a stated cost structure in place for Xbone, if the main APU yields are poor (and rumours suggest they are) then the solution is to either fuse off more CU's, CPU cores or lower clocks to ensure more usable parts, thus increasing the yield to an acceptable figure.
The problem with this is that unlike Nvidia or AMD with regular GPUs, MS can't exactly release what they have onto the market then refresh the line up 6-9 months later when the chip has been respun and clocks can be increased. If they release a 700MHz GPU then it will be 700MHz for the whole cycle.
The choice seems to be this:
1. Fuck it, stick to the plan, deal with the costs and stock issues (even delays) caused by poor yields later.
2. Lower the clockspeed, get more usable dice per wafer, lower costs, no chance of delays and no serious stock issues. Play down the power aspect and hope the public don't notice the gulf in between Xbone and PS4.
Of those the former is what I think a hardware company like Sony would choose, but the Xbox division seems to be run by bean counting suits, so I expect they have chosen the latter. Waiting for a respin just seems out of the question right now as it would delay the console into 2014.
