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Of the to of my head: * Intel xeon processors have software defined feature sets that are unlocked by a license. * Nvidia low hash rate GPUs * Nvidia vGPU on
by hex4def6 3y ago
Of the to of my head:
* Intel xeon processors have software defined feature sets that are unlocked by a license.
* Nvidia low hash rate GPUs
* Nvidia vGPU on consumer GPUs (there are hacks to enable it)
* hardware video / audio encoders in mobile processors that require licensing to use.
* Sony cameras have licenses that allow you to unlock extra features
* Cisco do this all the time with their router HW.
- Dylan16807 3y agoFeatures that are locked off permanently are less scummy. It's a bad way of emulating different production lines, but at least it doesn't let them charge ongoing rent.
- fho 3y agoIf I am not mistaken sometimes this is due to yield rates in chip manufacturing. Iirc there were 3 core pentiums at some point that were basically faulty 4 core chips where one core did not pass QC.
- themoonisachees 3y agoThis is extremely common on CPUs and GPUs. gx104 from Nvidia was famously identical to gx100 with cache, cores fused out, probably because they were defective. It's a good way to increase yield for monolithic dies.