4 ms·

So first they bring a DLC concept ("unlock features by spending money") to their enthousiast platform, and now this? Having a hunch Threadripper will sell extr

So first they bring a DLC concept ("unlock features by spending money") to their enthousiast platform, and now this? Having a hunch Threadripper will sell extremely well amongst PC enthousiasts this year...

rrdharan 9y ago
I'm curious what you are referring to re: the DLC concept? Did you mean this thing? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Upgrade_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Upgrade_Service Seems like that was discontinued a long time ago (2011) so was wondering if there was something more recent that happened?
- floatboth 9y ago
  Probably the paid hardware RAID unlock key.
  - amluto 9y ago
    Has Intel ever had hardware RAID? They have firmware RAID, but that's quite different.
    - keltor 9y ago
      They actually DID have hardware RAID controllers, but not like you're talking about.
  - blattimwind 9y ago
    Though that's not news to anyone who ever laid their hand on an Intel server board.
- brians 9y ago
  IIRC, this fall’s i9 chips and the motherboards supporting them have software-unlockable features. You can literally buy more PCI lanes. Which is another way of saying you had those lanes, and Intel wanted more money before letting you use what you’d already bought.
  - unethical_ban 9y ago
    AMD's triple core processors were quads with disabled cores. Often times processors within a line are processors with manually set lower clock multipliers or disabled cache. Sounds like Intel has just made it unlockable instead of permanent. It just brings to the fore what was already being done, and makes us question again the ethics of pricing models.
    - jhasse 9y ago
      You can't unlock all triple cores to quad cores though. It's called binning and all chip manufacturs do it. The chipset unlock thing is different as there's no technical reason to lock it in the first place.
    - manmal 9y ago
      Nvidia‘s GeForce cards could be converted to Quadro cards by opening a chip and adding some lines with a pencil. Don’t think that this still works, but a colleague of my father did it for his home PC.
      - eropple 9y ago
        One line, AFAIK. It was just a trace. However, that (and the later software modification) could both hamper performance in games and could exhibit correctness problems in accuracy-focused use cases, so it was rarely a great idea.
      - exDM69 9y ago
        No, that was just spoofing the PCI VID:PID to the kernel. It did not enable hardware features, just fooled the driver into thinking it was another device. You could do the same with a patched kernel if you don't want to solder.
    - yarg 9y ago
      This is generally the result of segregating defective parts of the chip in order to create a stable (albeit less powerful) chip. Some of the chips will be fully capable of running with all parts enabled, but in a higher power envelope (this is a guess - but I believe that the fully capable chips most likely to be sacrificed are those that have trouble fitting in the ideal power envelope). I would also imagine that (under some circumstances) chips that are fully functional within the expected power envelope will be artificially limited in order to control levels of stock. The vast majority of chips that are limited in this way will be out of spec, unstable or inoperable when unlocked.

rrdharan 9y ago

I'm curious what you are referring to re: the DLC concept? Did you mean this thing? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Upgrade_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Upgrade_Service Seems like that was discontinued a long time ago (2011) so was wondering if there was something more recent that happened?

floatboth 9y ago
Probably the paid hardware RAID unlock key.
- amluto 9y ago
  Has Intel ever had hardware RAID? They have firmware RAID, but that's quite different.
  - keltor 9y ago
    They actually DID have hardware RAID controllers, but not like you're talking about.
- blattimwind 9y ago
  Though that's not news to anyone who ever laid their hand on an Intel server board.
brians 9y ago
IIRC, this fall’s i9 chips and the motherboards supporting them have software-unlockable features. You can literally buy more PCI lanes. Which is another way of saying you had those lanes, and Intel wanted more money before letting you use what you’d already bought.
- unethical_ban 9y ago
  AMD's triple core processors were quads with disabled cores. Often times processors within a line are processors with manually set lower clock multipliers or disabled cache. Sounds like Intel has just made it unlockable instead of permanent. It just brings to the fore what was already being done, and makes us question again the ethics of pricing models.
  - jhasse 9y ago
    You can't unlock all triple cores to quad cores though. It's called binning and all chip manufacturs do it. The chipset unlock thing is different as there's no technical reason to lock it in the first place.
  - manmal 9y ago
    Nvidia‘s GeForce cards could be converted to Quadro cards by opening a chip and adding some lines with a pencil. Don’t think that this still works, but a colleague of my father did it for his home PC.
    - eropple 9y ago
      One line, AFAIK. It was just a trace. However, that (and the later software modification) could both hamper performance in games and could exhibit correctness problems in accuracy-focused use cases, so it was rarely a great idea.
    - exDM69 9y ago
      No, that was just spoofing the PCI VID:PID to the kernel. It did not enable hardware features, just fooled the driver into thinking it was another device. You could do the same with a patched kernel if you don't want to solder.
  - yarg 9y ago
    This is generally the result of segregating defective parts of the chip in order to create a stable (albeit less powerful) chip. Some of the chips will be fully capable of running with all parts enabled, but in a higher power envelope (this is a guess - but I believe that the fully capable chips most likely to be sacrificed are those that have trouble fitting in the ideal power envelope). I would also imagine that (under some circumstances) chips that are fully functional within the expected power envelope will be artificially limited in order to control levels of stock. The vast majority of chips that are limited in this way will be out of spec, unstable or inoperable when unlocked.