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Don't give them ideas. 99 dollars per month to use your/their laptop. 49 extra to unlock the performance cores. 99 more for the discrete graphic card. 39 for th

Don't give them ideas. 99 dollars per month to use your/their laptop. 49 extra to unlock the performance cores. 99 more for the discrete graphic card. 39 for the AI chip.

bayindirh 2y ago
Welcome to Intel On-Demand, formerly called Software Defined Silicon (SDSi): https://github.com/intel/intel-sdsi https://github.com/intel/intel-sdsi From the README: Intel® Xeon® family processors with support for Intel® On Demand (formerly known as Software Defined Silicon or SDSi) allow the configuration of additional CPU features through a license activation process.
- mschuster91 2y ago
  The first generations of Raspberry Pi had the same with video codecs, IIRC MPEG and h264, to keep the price down for educational users but make it usable for people doing stuff with video.
  - bayindirh 2y ago
    h.264 was licensed out of the box, but MPEG2 was not, you had to buy a license tied to your board (or processor) serial number to accelerate DVD playback on these systems.
  - eth0up 2y ago
    I recently swapped from Debian to OpenSuse and before the first zypper dist-upgrade, verified non OSS was enabled. Then I proceeded to edit videos in openshot, which couldn't recognize the most common formats. Man, I scratched half me hair off me ed after seeing VLC handle everything right beside it. No simple solutions were to be found on forums until after a eureka, I specifically searched with word "codecs". Turned out I had to install the packman-easentials repo, then grab the forbidden codecs. Reminded me of the early 2000s, where things were pretty finicky gettin a functional setup in Linuxland.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - mschuster91 2y ago
      > Turned out I had to install the packman-easentials repo, then grab the forbidden codecs. Reminded me of the early 2000s, where things were pretty finicky gettin a functional setup in Linuxland. Windows world wasn't much better with "codec packs" that led to all sorts of shenanigans - version mismatches that led to issues with games, people spicing up codecs and packs with malware, people mixing and matching stuff from various versions and sources haphazardly for "better performance", quite a few weren't freeware but shareware or paid and subsequently cracked, legitimate installers that distributed adware, download sites injecting adware ('member Sourceforge? [1]), SEO and DDoS wars between mal/adware spreaders... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31110206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31110206
      - eth0up 2y ago
        >remember Sourceforge? Yeah and vagueries of much more; Asio For All, AOL, Soundforge, Fruityloops, Spyhunter, endless other things and my 700mhz Celeron powered Pandora's box of disease and hacked productivity tools that all seemed great at the time.
- baq 2y ago
  In the B2B world where everything is being converted into yoy roi/roe it makes perfect sense for both parties, especially if you can pay for your cpus out of opex budget instead of capex. Absolutely abysmal for the consumer though.
- Sophira 2y ago
  That's horrifying.
  - jeroenhd 2y ago
    You get data center CPUs at half the price, and doubling your CPU throughput doesn't require paying someone to swap out hundreds or thousands of CPUs anymore. As long as they don't raise the prices of equivalent products that don't have this feature, I don't see the problem. Intel is the one at risk here, because if their license code ever leaks out or is found to be vulnerable, they've just sold their high-end hardware for mid-range prices.
    - hakfoo 2y ago
      Even without a leak, they face a risk with how actual CPUs bin out. They have to sell some $1000 CPUs at $600 as unlockable later to fulfill their contracts. But if their process is marginal, they may have to divert $1000 CPUs from the market who would pay $1000 for them to satisfy the $600 market.
- baal80spam 2y ago
  This one ended just great for Intel, didn't it? https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-finalizes-intel-on-demand-pay-as-you-go-mechanism https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-finalizes-intel-on-d...
- sillywalk 2y ago
  IBM and HP have had something similar to this in their mainframes/servers - Capacity on Demand - for decades. Pay more licensing to activate more CPUs/Cores that are present but disabled.
eecc 2y ago
That’s vintage Mainframe playbook
squarefoot 2y ago
I think they'll push for something even worse: all computing to slowly become remote, turning local machines into dumb terminals as in the mainframe era, like the last 60 years of IT development never happened. Cloud, SaaS and vGPU are examples of this tendency. Dumb terminals will be much cheaper: less resources, less (virtually no) storage, therefore many people will take this road to save money (ChromeOS anyone?), although in many cases they'll be forced to pay a lot more with time.
- pmontra 2y ago
  > all computing to slowly become remote If it will happen it will be probably championed because of security and law enforcement: automatic virus prevention, parental care, OS upgrades, content scans, piracy prevention, etc. Phones are more or less already there right now.
reaperducer 2y ago
Don't give them ideas. 99 dollars per month to use your/their laptop. 49 extra to unlock the performance cores. 99 more for the discrete graphic card. 39 for the AI chip. Microsoft was talking publicly about pay-per-minute Windows use way back in 1999/2000, but the technology didn't exist then. It does now.

Don't give them ideas. 99 dollars per month to use your/their laptop. 49 extra to unlock the performance cores. 99 more for the discrete graphic card. 39 for the AI chip.

bayindirh 2y ago

Welcome to Intel On-Demand, formerly called Software Defined Silicon (SDSi): https://github.com/intel/intel-sdsi https://github.com/intel/intel-sdsi From the README: Intel® Xeon® family processors with support for Intel® On Demand (formerly known as Software Defined Silicon or SDSi) allow the configuration of additional CPU features through a license activation process.

mschuster91 2y ago
The first generations of Raspberry Pi had the same with video codecs, IIRC MPEG and h264, to keep the price down for educational users but make it usable for people doing stuff with video.
- bayindirh 2y ago
  h.264 was licensed out of the box, but MPEG2 was not, you had to buy a license tied to your board (or processor) serial number to accelerate DVD playback on these systems.
- eth0up 2y ago
  I recently swapped from Debian to OpenSuse and before the first zypper dist-upgrade, verified non OSS was enabled. Then I proceeded to edit videos in openshot, which couldn't recognize the most common formats. Man, I scratched half me hair off me ed after seeing VLC handle everything right beside it. No simple solutions were to be found on forums until after a eureka, I specifically searched with word "codecs". Turned out I had to install the packman-easentials repo, then grab the forbidden codecs. Reminded me of the early 2000s, where things were pretty finicky gettin a functional setup in Linuxland.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - mschuster91 2y ago
    > Turned out I had to install the packman-easentials repo, then grab the forbidden codecs. Reminded me of the early 2000s, where things were pretty finicky gettin a functional setup in Linuxland. Windows world wasn't much better with "codec packs" that led to all sorts of shenanigans - version mismatches that led to issues with games, people spicing up codecs and packs with malware, people mixing and matching stuff from various versions and sources haphazardly for "better performance", quite a few weren't freeware but shareware or paid and subsequently cracked, legitimate installers that distributed adware, download sites injecting adware ('member Sourceforge? [1]), SEO and DDoS wars between mal/adware spreaders... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31110206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31110206
    - eth0up 2y ago
      >remember Sourceforge? Yeah and vagueries of much more; Asio For All, AOL, Soundforge, Fruityloops, Spyhunter, endless other things and my 700mhz Celeron powered Pandora's box of disease and hacked productivity tools that all seemed great at the time.
baq 2y ago
In the B2B world where everything is being converted into yoy roi/roe it makes perfect sense for both parties, especially if you can pay for your cpus out of opex budget instead of capex. Absolutely abysmal for the consumer though.
Sophira 2y ago
That's horrifying.
- jeroenhd 2y ago
  You get data center CPUs at half the price, and doubling your CPU throughput doesn't require paying someone to swap out hundreds or thousands of CPUs anymore. As long as they don't raise the prices of equivalent products that don't have this feature, I don't see the problem. Intel is the one at risk here, because if their license code ever leaks out or is found to be vulnerable, they've just sold their high-end hardware for mid-range prices.
  - hakfoo 2y ago
    Even without a leak, they face a risk with how actual CPUs bin out. They have to sell some $1000 CPUs at $600 as unlockable later to fulfill their contracts. But if their process is marginal, they may have to divert $1000 CPUs from the market who would pay $1000 for them to satisfy the $600 market.
baal80spam 2y ago
This one ended just great for Intel, didn't it? https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-finalizes-intel-on-demand-pay-as-you-go-mechanism https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-finalizes-intel-on-d...
sillywalk 2y ago
IBM and HP have had something similar to this in their mainframes/servers - Capacity on Demand - for decades. Pay more licensing to activate more CPUs/Cores that are present but disabled.

eecc 2y ago

That’s vintage Mainframe playbook

squarefoot 2y ago

I think they'll push for something even worse: all computing to slowly become remote, turning local machines into dumb terminals as in the mainframe era, like the last 60 years of IT development never happened. Cloud, SaaS and vGPU are examples of this tendency. Dumb terminals will be much cheaper: less resources, less (virtually no) storage, therefore many people will take this road to save money (ChromeOS anyone?), although in many cases they'll be forced to pay a lot more with time.

pmontra 2y ago
> all computing to slowly become remote If it will happen it will be probably championed because of security and law enforcement: automatic virus prevention, parental care, OS upgrades, content scans, piracy prevention, etc. Phones are more or less already there right now.

reaperducer 2y ago

Don't give them ideas. 99 dollars per month to use your/their laptop. 49 extra to unlock the performance cores. 99 more for the discrete graphic card. 39 for the AI chip. Microsoft was talking publicly about pay-per-minute Windows use way back in 1999/2000, but the technology didn't exist then. It does now.