Want to use all the capabilities of your CPU? Then pay up!
Software upgrade vouchers are something that we're used to. A simple code can either unlock previously dormant features or it can initiate a download of upgrade files. This sort of system is used for games and even operating systems like Windows 7. But now it's being put to use in Intel CPUs.
An Engadget reader spotted on the shelves a Best Buy a $50 upgrade card that claims to upgrade the processor inside the Gateway SX2841-09e, which is a Pentium G6951 dual-core LGA1156 Clarkdale processor.
The upgrade card appears to promise an upgrade from 2- to 4-way multi-task processing and a larger cache, speeding up data-heavy applications. Specifically, that means the enabling of HyperThreading and an extra 1MB of L3 cache for a total of 4MB.
To "unlock" the full features of this CPU, a user must go to the Intel upgrade website and install the upgrade application. From there, a PIN from the upgrade voucher must be entered for the upgrade before the reboot completes the process.
Right now, this "upgradeable" CPU is being tested in select markets, so it likely isn't a sign of things to come – at least not in the enthusiast high-end.
How do you feel about this kind of model? Do you feel that you should be getting 100 percent of the capabilities of the hardware you own, or are you pleased that you have an upgrade option that you can pay more for when or if you need it?
Sigh... Of all the businesses to hop on the nickel-and-dime bus, Intel wasn't one I was expecting.
Maybe this will be Intel's answer to AMD's ACC... but with a price-tag.
THIS. If anything, this is Intel's money grubbing turning into an instance of them tipping their hand. If CPU features can be unlocked via software (especially cache), that's a game changer for the enthusiast crowd. Once this gets reverse-engineered (which it will), Intel is going to be kicking themselves. The enthusiast crowd will have a way to get better performance from a cheaper chip and the mainstream probably won't even show any widespread interest in this to begin with.
It does raise a question for me, though. What does this mean to the whole binning concept? I've always been under the impression that features such as "extra" cache were disabled due to chip defects, which in turn is a way to increase yield and keep costs down. Does this now mean that Intel is taking measures to hobble good silicon just so they can maybe grab an extra $50 down the road? Seems like that would be a more expensive process in the long run...
Sigh... Of all the businesses to hop on the nickel-and-dime bus, Intel wasn't one I was expecting.