Intel wants $50 to unlock restricted chip power
by Steven Mostyn - Sep 20 2010, 05:05
Pay more for what you already own? Image: Engadget.
Imagine you buy a full-price music CD or DVD movie, only to find that certain song tracks, interviews with the stars, and other on-disc content has been locked by the publisher. Chances are the prospect of an additional monetary outlay to fully enjoy a product you’ve already purchased in its entirety would leave you furious.
Bearing that in mind, prepare to vent a little spleen as we tell you that chipmaker Intel Corp., while willing to sell you a new computer processor at its full retail price point, wants an extra $50 USD in order to provide you, the customer, with access to all of said chip’s functionality.
According to an Engadget report, Intel is to test the retail waters in this regard by selling a $50 USD “Processor Performance Upgrade Card” that will tap into power on the low-cost Pentium G6951 processor – power that’s right there on the chip but has been disabled during manufacturing.
Adding further detail, CPU World offers that the 2.8GHz G6951 comes equipped with 3MBs of L3 cache and its HyperThreading capability is not available at purchase. However, once armed with the performance upgrade card and its unlock code, the processor provides HyperThreading access and an improved 4MBs of L3 cache.
Given that the security of Intel’s HDCP “master key” was officially broken last week, it looks like the upgrade card may now provide the hacking community with a fresh focus as it attempts to provide (disgruntled) users with the option of sidestepping that extra $50 USD investment.
Sadly Intel isn’t the first tech player to charge its customers for locked content. Major publishers within the videogames industry have long since adopted the profit-wringing strategy of locking gameplay content on disc until players shell out extra for ‘downloadable’ access.
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