Monday, September 20th 2010
Intel Wants $50 for Software Unlock of CPU Features
The Pentium G6951 dual-core LGA1156 processor may not have made any headlines when it was known to be almost identical to the Pentium G6950, until now. Intel designed the G6951 to support "hardware feature upgrades" by purchasing them and enabling them using a software, so users with this processor installed can upgrade their systems by enabling that are otherwise locked for the SKU. The $50 upgrade fetches support for HyperThreading Technology, enabling four threads on the processor; and unlocks the disabled 1 MB of the L3 cache (Clarkdale has 4 MB of L3 cache, of which 1 MB is disabled on the Pentium SKUs).
There isn't much value in buying a $99 Pentium G6951 and the $50 Upgrade Card upfront, but later down the line, companies can opt to mass-upgrade system performance without touching any of the hardware inside. The service works by the purchase of an upgrade key that the user has to feed into the software, which is then verified by Intel's activation server, following successful verification, the software unlocks the processor's features. This is a one-time process, portable between software reinstallations.
There isn't much value in buying a $99 Pentium G6951 and the $50 Upgrade Card upfront, but later down the line, companies can opt to mass-upgrade system performance without touching any of the hardware inside. The service works by the purchase of an upgrade key that the user has to feed into the software, which is then verified by Intel's activation server, following successful verification, the software unlocks the processor's features. This is a one-time process, portable between software reinstallations.
160 Comments on Intel Wants $50 for Software Unlock of CPU Features
proc A $100
Proc B 120
upgrade $50
proc B new price 150
seriously? Their making it look like you have more options by making a cool spread sheet that shows more processors on the market. But its their software so they charge what they want, and you just happen to be poor. If that isnt capitalizing idk what is.
We break PS3, BIOS, smart phones, Xbox, etc..... how long do they think this will be valid for.
The other side of this is, lets say they sell a set of CPU's to a school with the intent of being able to upgrade, however a certain percentage of those corrupt data due to issues with the cache that is unlocked, or due to other die defects. How long before they get their asses sued off for selling known defective products.
*punches himself in the mouth*
They used to do this so they could sell defective processors, they just disable what is defect and sell it as a Celeron/Sempron or whatever they want to call it. However, manufacturing processes have gotten to the point where most of the time this is done instead to simply offer products to different market segments.
Personnally, I think it is a good idea on Intels part, but I think $50 is a little expensive. But for a standard user that doesn't know how to change their own processor, it actually isn't that bad of a deal.
Also, look at what the upgrade actually gets you. You go from a Pentium G6951 which is 2.8GHz w/ 3MB Cache and no-HT, and you are unlocking the cache to 4MB and enabling HT, turning it into essentially an i3-520(if there was such a thing), but the i3-530 is only $15 more and it is clocked higher. But it would still cost more to actually upgrade from a G6951 to an i3-530 since taking in to have it done would cost at least $50 in labor. This upgrade might not make sense to us, because we know how to swap out processors, but for a standard computer user that doesn't even know how to change a fan or add RAM, it makes sense...of course it also won't make much of a difference either...
And the people that are going to "crack" this are wasting their time, because anyone that would probably use the crack would probably just spend the $15 up front to get a better processor than what the crack gives in the end.
**** Intel.
Like whats been said already there be cracks for it sooner or later but what worrys me if a virus could mess around with your CPU without you even knowing before it's to late.
All the Yahoo questions that go "Can I download a faster Pentiums processor?" will now have to be answered "Yes."
You aren't paying for these feature when you buy the original processor, so paying to unlock them later is hardly being ripped off. If you want those feature you pay for them, either by buying a better processor or software unlocking them on your current.
You bought the damn thing, it's in your hands every molecule of silicone is yours, in the case where intel is holding out part of it for ransom then it's just your right to resort in a "lex talionis" manner (piracy comes to mind).
You have not paid for the features, so they are not enabled, when you buy a processor you buy a feature set, not just the physical product. You pay for the clock speed, you pay for the features. They are all already there, an i3-530 can do the clock speed of an i5-540, but you didn't pay for that clock speed so you don't get it. Are you saying that a person buying an i3-530 should get the same clock speeds as an i5-660? They are the same silicon, you paid for it, so why shouldn't you bet getting the exact same performance and features? Well, you've got a 940, with a DDR3 memory controller that has been disabled. Wouldn't it be nice if AMD sold a similar upgrade card to enable the DDR3 support? Would you buy it? Do you feel ripped off now knowing the processor you bought has disabled features?
like lets look at this again.
PROC A same as proc B
PROC A $100
PROC B $120
Upgrade $50
diffirential $30
but you decide not to upgrade but you want better so you grab proc C which is $130 and slightely better than proc B which is basically what your proc A basically is. Now your paying $130 for an upgrade which is only slightly better than what you have to begin with.
Granted you can pay the $50 and get slightly less than proc C. I also understand that you get what you pay for with proc C as its technically a new proc. HOWEVER you are basing your arguments off of intelligent people. TPU users are obviously not going to be looking into this as a viable upgrade solution. However uninformed people are not going to see this. This is not a deal for them. this is not a deal for anybody. This makes all intel chips a money pit as I seriously doubt this will only apply to lowend chips for so long. Sooner or later processors of the extreme level will have this. and when they change market segments thats when it will get worse. Low end upgrade applies to XXX procs $50 midend support list XXX upgrade $70 highend unlock support list XXX $100 Noit to mention if they ever make this call home or need to be installed they can implement shit like if the program detects the chip is running out of frequency range the system shuts down. or the proc is locked, or the BIOS is reset to defaults and the next reboot everything is stock because they include in the EULA that OC is not supported what now?
I fully support the 1st strategy binning and all that it implies. Because it helps the chip maker get money from otherwise compromised items.
I do not support negative marketing strategies that say We'd rather let it rot than give it to you for free, we're making lots of money anyway. It's there it's in your hands therefore you own it.
What if say LG did that with it's LCD TV's? Oh you can only view movies up to 720p. Your TV can output 1080p but it will cost you extra... ;)
Say I buy a Dual-Core CPU that can be unlocked to a Hex-Core.
The Warranty is; say; 2 years.
I own the CPU 2 years and 3 months, purchase the CPU upgrade, and then find 1 of the cores is defective.
Where would this leave me? Exactly where Intel would want me - looking to buy another CPU.
If they didn't use the second, we would have to pick between 4 or 5 processor and that is it, there wouldn't be cheap processors, they would all be expensive. Intel's processr lineup would look like this: i5-680@$300, i7-875@$330, i7-960@$560, and i7-980X@$1000 because any processor below those would be the cut down processors that you say shouldn't exists.
We're not talking about TVs, we are talking about processors. What is the alternative to this strategy? Most of you seem to think the alternative is that you would just have these features to begine with but you wouldn't! If this strategy did not exists, then these features would stay permanently disabled because the G6951 processor isn't supposed to have them.
I'll shed a single tear for Intel then it's off to AMD.. one single tear.
It's impossible to leave the budget and middle segment uncovered, they'd be forced to sell good procesors at competitive prices. that's the alternative strategy as dreadfull as it sounds for them.
Also it doesnt charge you extra for a core. it's good publicity (that's a change for AMD) kind of like sweepstakes. "Get a x3 core and you just may get an extra core free" that's.
Besides dont compare Intel prices to AMD ones.
You are right however, if this was an ultra competitive market nobody could afford schemes like the one pulled by Intel.