Intel Wants $50 for Software Unlock of CPU Features

[Sempron Guy]

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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.

Intel Wants $50 for Software Unlock of CPU Features | techPowerUp

FYI Intel, AMD offers( though they did not literally advertise it,..) the same unlocking feature for FREE. In my point of view, that is plain crap-ito.

[goldfinger]

Nice find bro. Mao na silang duha permi palabwanay. Lumba pa sila pa baratuhay daghan pa malipay.

[kell_vern]

Nice find bro. Mao na silang duha permi palabwanay. Lumba pa sila pa baratuhay daghan pa malipay.

kana pabaratuhay, daghan jud lipay...

[blizzaga4]

The $50 upgrade fetches support for HyperThreading Technology, enabling four threads on the processor; and unlocks the disabled 1 MB of the L3 cache

meaning i.enable ra diay ang hyperthreading?

[Sempron Guy]

^naka enable na guro tapos, ila gi-disable, bayad dayun ka if gusto nimo i-enable

[blizzaga4]

toinx.... guess they have to make the software compatible for LINUX and Windows. If they make it for LINUX sure ko the Open Source Community will hack into it...tsk3..

[poldopunk]

there are numerous discussions of this in teh internets; all of them point to a good thing -- crack the damned thing and get a free upgrade, yay! hackers managed to crack HDCP DRM, i'm sure they can do this, too albeit it'll take a long time(?)

[kazki]

Waiting for hackers to get it cracked

[P0w3rM0v3]

Intel Wants $50 for Software Unlock of CPU Features | techPowerUp

FYI Intel, AMD offers( though they did not literally advertise it,..) the same unlocking feature for FREE. In my point of view, that is plain crap-ito.

Agreed. AMD does one better since you have the chance to unlock actual core(s) rather than just logical ones. Not to mention you can opt to buy those with unlocked multipliers. But best of all you don't have to pay $50!

[fish]

Waiting for hackers to get it cracked

we'll be waiting for how to's from hackers to enable these intel features... hehehe! and get it for free... rather than paying intel 50$ for each feature. hehehe!