Intel Software Defined Silicon Planned For Integration In Linux 5.18

[jacob]

As long as this activation is permanent and triggers some ROM inside the CPU I'm fine with it. No idea why people oppose it so much. You don't need extra features? Don't pay for them.

Because I've ALREADY paid for them. They are physically part of the component I PURCHASED (not licensed or rented). I bought the CPU, now it's MY CPU, not Intel's. I can use it in whatever damn way I please without any relationship with Intel whatsoever.

[Spacefish]

"Software Defined Silicon" and i was thinking of some FPGA integration or something like that..
Like have 10 "software defined" opcodes in the CPU which when executed attach some registers to an FPGA which has net-lists defined by the user.
Hope AMD will do something like that, after they acquired Xilinx.
Would be nice to have something like that, as algorithms which now take multiple instructions could be implemented by a single instruction. Loading these nets into the FPGA could be done on context switch by the OS if the thread set´s a flag, like the restore of the XSS registers.

But here we are it´s some DRM crap, what did i expect..

[birdie]

Because I've ALREADY paid for them. They are physically part of the component I PURCHASED (not licensed or rented). I bought the CPU, now it's MY CPU, not Intel's. I can use it in whatever damn way I please without any relationship with Intel whatsoever.

This has been repeated multiple times in this discussion, this PoV, if we are talking about permanently enabling features, is squarely invalid.

Why? Because Intel, AMD and NVIDIA and many other chip makers have been doing that on a physical level for close to 30 years now and no one has bat an eye. They sell chips with physically fully functional features which are fused off at the factory because they need to sell something. It's absolutely OK for everyone.

At the same time if it's controlled by software, "OMG, THE WORLD IS ENDING INTEL ARE BAD, I'VE BOUGHT IT ALL". Sorry, that's asinine.

I vividly remember how happy were AMD fans when they could enable a fourth core of their Athlon II X3 CPUs (btw they were horrible) or when they managed to unlock GPU cores by flashing firmware from a different SKU.

[Linuxxx]

Firmware Defined Hardware...Software Defined Silicone...it's all the same -- capitalism run amok.

But that's exactly one of the hallmarks of capitalism:
Being able to stick a price-tag onto absolutely everything over time!

Still, most people on this planet will never care as long as there is a shiny new product for them to consume...

(sent from my cheap-arse Chromebook)

[coder]

That's mainly thanks to the minimal amount of backlash Tesla got from their battery firmware -- these days all their cars of the same model/family have the same battery, you just pay more to unlock the extra capacity. In their early days it was actual different capacity batteries but they learned it was cheaper to make the better battery and limit it with firmware for different options

That sucks. I figured I'd buy a car with a smaller battery to save some weight, thereby increasing energy efficiency. Because I never drive more than 100 miles per day, unexpectedly. And for a long trip, I figure I could always get a rental or keep my existing gas car. Ideally, I'd be able to add and remove batteries as-needed.

But, you're saying that I don't save any weight or any environmental impact. Huh.

[coder]

Because I've ALREADY paid for them. They are physically part of the component I PURCHASED (not licensed or rented).

Newsflash: a lot of CPUs are being sold with perfectly working cores or features that are disabled. This is only different in that it lets you enable them.

[coder]

"Software Defined Silicon" and i was thinking of some FPGA integration or something like that..
Like have 10 "software defined" opcodes in the CPU which when executed attach some registers to an FPGA which has net-lists defined by the user.
Hope AMD will do something like that, after they acquired Xilinx.

No, FPGAs are way slower than the custom-designed silicon comprising the ALUs of modern CPUs. They're only a win if you have like some dataflow pipeline where a bunch of stages can run concurrently. Ideally, if it also doesn't need full range/precision arithmetic.

[coder]

But that's exactly one of the hallmarks of capitalism:
Being able to stick a price-tag onto absolutely everything over time!

Still, most people on this planet will never care as long as there is a shiny new product for them to consume...

I think the problem a lot of people have with the scheme is the potential lack of control it represents.

If you buy a CPU with all the features fixed at the outset, then you know what you're getting and what it'll cost you. And you know those capabilities can't be taken away (within reason - see microcode mitigations for hardware bugs).

However, if Intel starts leasing features of your CPU, then you've lost control of your hardware and predictability over how much it'll cost you to keep it running in the way that you want.

[partcyborg]

I look forward to the day that people born in hospitals don't "own" their birthing procedure, they just rent it from the hospital at a "low monthly rate" for your entire life. Best part is, if you don't pay they "repossess", shoving you back into a warm bag of fluid where you immediately drown

[Volta]

The important point is - bird people seem to not understand - such 'feature' gives hardware manufacturers (intel in this case) ability to disable your CPU features. Let's say some country buys thousands intel CPUs, but US government says they're terrorists, intel you have to cripple their computing power. You didn't pay tax? No problem, we'll automagically take it from your CPU. Security is another thing that needs to be taken into account.