What this ignores is the reality of product differentiation in the era of mass production, specifically silicon etch.
Once the design for the MOST complex[1] in a family of CPUs[2] is completed, it's less expensive to simply maintain one master design, and selectively enable functional blocks. Less design work, less unique fab line setup, less unique designs to debug/validate, less packaging to consider, etc... It becomes a matter of simply running one product thru the fab lines, and then stocking all your individual parts based on the selective enabling. What this boils down to is that YOU benefit by ultimately cheaper parts at all the strata for which they are sold. What do you care if there's some xtra silicon in there you'll never see? Or use? Or if you DO opt to enable the upgraded functionality, what have you lost, other than the time and effort it took to swap a physical part? Or if you have "X" budget to build a PC today, and then 3 months later you have an xtra $50-100 to buy a better CPU... under the old model, you would have to sustain the loss of discarding the old CPU, or hope you can recoup some of your initial investment via ebay... in the new model your incremental additional investment is ADDED to your existing investment. So do you really want to forego the benefit of economies of scale when Intel can manufacture 1 billion copies of one part, as opposed to 100 million copies of 10 different parts? Be careful what you ask for... -sc [1] Within "reason" for complexity[3] [2] One for which the great majority of the architecture is identical, and we are talking about dis-/en-abling blocks such as cache, additional cores, etc... [3] Typically where the additional surface area of silicon is below the a threshold where real estate sacrificed become prohibitively expensive to maintain this model > -----Original Message----- > From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 11:21 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: Intel wants to charge to unlock features already on your CPU > > I agree... if you modify your Windows 7 install and it violates the EULA, > Microsoft has every right to say "sorry... you violated the EULA, we're not > supporting it." Same goes for a "bricked" iphone. I also would not expect > Intel to support a "hacked" CPU. That being said, I think it's a crappy way to > do business... sell a "crippled" product then charge to "fix it." > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Mayo, Bill [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:30 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: Intel wants to charge to unlock features already on your CPU > > If you applied a hack to your Windows 7 installation that allowed you to > bypass some of the security controls (e.g. product activation), would you > expect Microsoft to support it? The ruling says, "It's your hardware, so you > can do what you want with it." Apple says, "If you modify the operating > system, don't call us if you have problems with it." As far as I know, there > would be nothing to prevent you from restoring the factory iOS to your > phone and contacting Apple for support if the problem persisted (was > hardware related). If you bricked your iPhone trying to jailbreak it, then > all > bets are off. > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:20 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: Intel wants to charge to unlock features already on your CPU > > I wonder if it wouldn't be something similar to the recent ruling that a phone > owner can legally "jail-break" their iPhone, but Apple can then refuse to > support it??? > > > > From: Jonathan Link [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 9:58 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: Intel wants to charge to unlock features already on your CPU > > Typically, that involved the single issue of illegal possession of some > physical > item. > > There's a whole area of new law that needs to be made on this area. We're > now in the situation where I legally own something, have legal physical > possession, but you're retaining certain rights in relation to that item, and > we've signed no agreement to that effect. We have 3,400+ years of, if it's > mine, I can do what I want with it, too. We have case law to that effect. > Are > we now putting EULAs on hardware? > On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Raper, Jonathan - Eagle > <[email protected]> wrote: > Isn't stealing illegal in most countries? IIRC, that concept goes all the way > back > to the days of Moses...about 3,400 years ago, give or take a century ;-) > > Jonathan L. Raper, A+, MCSA, MCSE > Technology Coordinator > Eagle Physicians & Associates, PA > [email protected] > www.eaglemds.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ben Scott [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 9:00 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: Intel wants to charge to unlock features already on your CPU > > On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 10:51 PM, Ken Schaefer <[email protected]> > wrote: > > You are getting what you paid for. And if you then decide you need > something better, you can unlock those features without having to replace > your CPU. > > It wouldn't bother me so much except that you're actually getting the > hardware, and then these companies inevitably try to enforce their business > model through legislation which makes "unapproved activation" > illegal. > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > Any medical information contained in this electronic message is > CONFIDENTIAL and privileged. It is unlawful for unauthorized persons to > view, copy, disclose, or disseminate CONFIDENTIAL information. This > electronic message may contain information that is confidential and/or legally > privileged. It is intended only for the use of the individual(s) and/or entity > named as recipients in the message. If you are not an intended recipient of > this message, please notify the sender immediately and delete this material > from your computer. Do not deliver, distribute or copy this message, and do > not disclose its contents or take any action in reliance on the information > that > it contains. > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt- > software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
