Intel OEM Engineers Caught Selling Sample Chips on eBay
Intel OEM Engineers Caught Selling Sample Chips on eBay
Posted 01/04/2012 at 10:48am
| by Paul Lilly
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Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) arrested four engineers for allegedly selling Intel processors designated as Engineer Samples (ES) on eBay for personal profit. Intel ES chips are the property of Intel and are often sent off to reviewers and OEM manufacturers prior to commercial release in order to test for compatibility. In theory, they're supposed to be returned to Intel.
In practice, ES chips are often sold and traded, which is technically illegal. ES processors are often unlocked and sometimes cherry picked. In some cases, they can be missing certain features found on later revisions/steppings or otherwise incomplete.
According to an EETimes report, detectives were hired to investigate the suspected ES scandal and had been tracking the four suspects since September. The investigation culminated in a raid on their homes in December, which uncovered 178 ES processors worth approximately $84,000.
The CIB says the suspects admitted to selling over 500 Intel ES CPUs since 2009.
Image Credit: Intel
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blakwolf
January 05, 2012 at 11:37am
178 ES processors worth approximately $84,000. Yeah, I could use that.
KenLV
January 05, 2012 at 1:31am
To use the oh so fuzzy logic of our pro-pirate friends here: "No crime here. It’s not stealing since the chips weren’t going to be sold anyhow so they weren’t depriving anyone of any profit."
JohnP
January 04, 2012 at 11:58pm
Being an HP repairman, I had access to bunches of high end parts. The most I did with them was to build my first Intel based PC out of parts scavanged from upgrades, not exactly a crime but those parts were supposed to go back to be recycled.
What was amazing to me was the guys who lost their jobs over stealing stuff from inventory or by selling their instruments (we had a couple).
These Intel techs were pulling in say 40K a year and making $5,000 a year on selling chips. BAD BARGAIN any way you look at it. Idiots.
nightsfire
January 04, 2012 at 11:36am
i almost got one of them but desided not to becuse it has no warrenty there is quite a few on ebay
nsvander
January 04, 2012 at 12:45pm
Most engineers that I know are smart, but lack any real world common sense, as they spend too much time in the labs.
onisuriyuuu
January 04, 2012 at 1:01pm
its good money in their eyes.
think about it, you get trays and trays of processors. think how much per pop you can make.
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