Intel Charging $50 to Unlock Your CPU

[jimmyb]

I don't disagree that this is a bad idea.

I can see some benefits to it though:
To preface this, I'll state that I work in the ASIC industry. In fact, my job is IC design at company which creates x86 CPUs, among other things.

A lot of work goes into designing different tiers of chips targeting different markets. Assuming we could consolidate all that work into a handful of chips, and then just strap them off to different levels of performance and functionality, that would save us a lot of work and money. Rather than having a lot of redundant work, we could focus on making the products even better than they are.

There's definitely something unsettling about the idea of unlocking features post-sale though.

 

[nobody_here]

I don't disagree that this is a bad idea.

I can see some benefits to it though:
To preface this, I'll state that I work in the ASIC industry. In fact, my job is IC design at company which creates x86 CPUs, among other things.

A lot of work goes into designing different tiers of chips targeting different markets. Assuming we could consolidate all that work into a handful of chips, and then just strap them off to different levels of performance and functionality, that would save us a lot of work and money. Rather than having a lot of redundant work, we could focus on making the products even better than they are.

There's definitely something unsettling about the idea of unlocking features post-sale though.

ah hah! someone in the industry actually agrees with me on this one!

it could be beneficial to many in the long run as they only have to focus development on 5-10 tiers of hardware instead of a sea of slightly different cpu's

 

[TheBuzzer]

I figure out the card, the card will be like the cpu where you put the card on top of the cpu at the correct view.

there will be a small hole where you color in with a pencil to bridge the overclock feature.

 

[[H]ocusPocus]

One of the problems you're going tor run into when you try to estimate supply and demand is that, okay, you as Intel might estimate only selling few i7-980X processors in May, then suddenly, in as early as June 1st, there is a really high demand for them. Shit. This fusing scheme effiectely decreased the stock of i7-980Xes (unless there is a method to unlock i7-970s, and then and you put them in a new i7-980x box?)

Are you suggesting that they don't do supply and demand estimations today? Of course they do. I fail to see how your example is any different.

Second problem is that no, I don't expect undergrad EEs to reverse engineer the fuse system, depending on what level that it is implemented. If it turns into a scenario where you have an option of entering in or redeeming a code in Windows, then there might be a higher probable chance of said fuses to be reverse engineered. You don't even have to look as far as EEs, take a look at motherboard companies and ACC unlocking the AMD cores (faulty or not). --- This would actually be in benefit of people who want to exploit such a thing because under this sales paradigm because a lower end chip is guaranteed to have a mechanism to unlock it because it is the literal wolf-in-sheep's-clothing. I think more people would jump at the chance to exploit that.

I agree, people will be all over this. Do a little extra work and get lots more performance. Oh wait, that's what we overclockers do now I'm sure Intel has some plan here. Maybe they only sell these cpu's to OEMs? Maybe there is some online verification step? Maybe they decide those are acceptable losses, just like the losses to overclocking.

Third, speaking of exploitation, selling me features already KNOWN to be in the physical product and giving me something like a scratch off code I buy in Wal-Mart to increase performance? OK, you can argue that this is similar to what AMD and Intel already do because some of those Hekas really are just a Deneb with cores disabled, because they need to increase the number of Heka processors to meet demand. The core difference is though, I bought that Heka without any reservation that it is what it is, a Heka, in terms of performance, no thought of upgrade -- and it is priced accordingly. The opposite situation we have is that AMD sells Hekas with full knowledge that they are indeed just Denebs, but they disclose this information and you can bet your ass they will be priced accordingly, because you have the added bonus of $200 scratch off cards to upgrade or whatever scheme they cook up.

Consumers will simply vote with their wallets. If this "feature" adds much to the initial price of the system, it will likely fail.

You can also run into issues with labeling. Oh, you can upgrade this Heka! Oops, it's actually binned, those cores don't work! Our mistake!

Just sounds like a verification process to me.

 

[stealthy123]

profit margins on intel CPUs is ridiculous.

Saving intel money is not a valid reason for them to do it.

they won't lower costs, until AMD steps up to the plate like they did with A64.

Just another money grab by a ridiculously bloated arrogant greedy company.