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> cloud providers) which explicitly demanded "bridled CPUs" like TPM and SecureBoot You seem to be terribly confused. End customers demand features, they do n

by mike_d 5y ago

> cloud providers) which explicitly demanded "bridled CPUs" like TPM and SecureBoot You seem to be terribly confused. End customers demand features, they do not demand limitations. AWS and GCP don't want to spend money acquiring or powering chips with dead areas of silicon.

ethbr0 5y ago
End customers demand features for a price. If there's unused silicon in a chip, but it costs the same or cheaper and has the features they want, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a customer who's going to complain.
- fragmede 5y ago
  If it's possible, customers will buy as many of the cheap ones as they can, at the lower price, and aftermarket enable the unused silicon to get a better product, for less money, which may make the business people unhappy. This happened with some GPUs where they could be "upgraded" to be a better product with a soldering iron.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    I'm familiar, I've gotten a few free AMD cores. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19Ms49ip5PBB7nYnf5urxsySvH-Sdy6liE2EBDaB8b54/edit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19Ms49ip5PBB7nYnf5urx... At the end of the day, I don't understand the umbrage at companies segmenting by software instead of hardware. As long as it's obvious what you're getting when you buy, and what you buy lives up to what you were promised, why should I care what it actually is? If the company chooses to look the other way and allow relatively easy unlocks without promising stability, well, that's nice. But nothing I'm owed just because it was physically on the chip. Now on the other hand, if a consumer company switches from a product model to a lease/HaaS model... that's an entirely different can of worms, and they can go to hell.
- summm 5y ago
  Great. Where can I get a CPU where that stupid Intel ME or AMD crap is just permanently fused off, and even pay less for it?
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    Your computer won't boot if they are fused off. They are a necessary component of the CPU.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    You are paying less for it, in retail CPU prices that are contingent on the same model with ME features being sold to integrators and enterprise organizations who use it.
zozbot234 5y ago
"Dark Silicon" is actually ubiquitous in modern chips. They can't possibly run 100% of the chip while staying within power and thermal constraints - and this gets worse, not better as process technology improves. So, even if some of that dark silicon is "software defined" it just doesn't matter all that much.

by mike_d 5y ago

ethbr0 5y ago

End customers demand features for a price. If there's unused silicon in a chip, but it costs the same or cheaper and has the features they want, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a customer who's going to complain.

fragmede 5y ago
If it's possible, customers will buy as many of the cheap ones as they can, at the lower price, and aftermarket enable the unused silicon to get a better product, for less money, which may make the business people unhappy. This happened with some GPUs where they could be "upgraded" to be a better product with a soldering iron.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  I'm familiar, I've gotten a few free AMD cores. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19Ms49ip5PBB7nYnf5urxsySvH-Sdy6liE2EBDaB8b54/edit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19Ms49ip5PBB7nYnf5urx... At the end of the day, I don't understand the umbrage at companies segmenting by software instead of hardware. As long as it's obvious what you're getting when you buy, and what you buy lives up to what you were promised, why should I care what it actually is? If the company chooses to look the other way and allow relatively easy unlocks without promising stability, well, that's nice. But nothing I'm owed just because it was physically on the chip. Now on the other hand, if a consumer company switches from a product model to a lease/HaaS model... that's an entirely different can of worms, and they can go to hell.
summm 5y ago
Great. Where can I get a CPU where that stupid Intel ME or AMD crap is just permanently fused off, and even pay less for it?
- charcircuit 5y ago
  Your computer won't boot if they are fused off. They are a necessary component of the CPU.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  You are paying less for it, in retail CPU prices that are contingent on the same model with ME features being sold to integrators and enterprise organizations who use it.

zozbot234 5y ago

"Dark Silicon" is actually ubiquitous in modern chips. They can't possibly run 100% of the chip while staying within power and thermal constraints - and this gets worse, not better as process technology improves. So, even if some of that dark silicon is "software defined" it just doesn't matter all that much.