Intel Adding”Software Defined Silicon” Mechanism to Linux: Pay Money to Unlock Additional CPU Features via Software Updates

[Brian_B]

Uhh... explain that to companies moving all of their compute and storage to the cloud.

You are right, it draws a lot of parallels to cloud and colocated computing.

 

[serpretetsky]

Yes they can. Microcode updates.

http://[URL]https://www.pcworld.com...ocking-party-by-closing-skylake-loophole.html

[/URL]

And you can say "Well, I'll just block updates", and that will work, until they put in timeouts which require renewing or periodic online check-ins.

But I guess by that logic, they already control all of our CPUs after we buy them and this doesn't really change anything

 

[Brian_B]

But I guess by that logic, they already control all of our CPUs after we buy them and this doesn't really change anything

True. They haven't really tried a subscription or changing license style model though - just pay up front for what you get.

You could say the non-K's have the locked clocks, and you pay more for the K edition just to get those unlocked. From what I can tell, the biggest difference would be (and this is just an example, there are a lot of things they ~could~ do) that you would be able to pay to upgrade your CPU to a K edition later on.

 

[Tempest]

Intel already has too many SKUs; this makes it easier for them to further their shady market segmentation practices. In principle this is something that could benefit all parties, but this is Intel, so let's be realistic.

There we go, that was easier than I thought.

[snip]

Also in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Upgrade_Service