Intel Sunsets Controversial 'Pay-to-Unlock' Hardware Feature

Intel's experiment with a pay-to-unlock hardware model, known as Intel On Demand, has officially come to a quiet end. The feature, first introduced in 2021 under the name "Software Defined Silicon (SDSi)," was designed to allow customers to activate additional licensed hardware features on certain processors by paying a fee.

The core concept behind Intel On Demand was to ship specific Xeon processor models with integrated, yet disabled, accelerator functions. Customers could then pay to enable these features, effectively unlocking the full potential of the hardware they already owned. This service eventually became formally known as Intel On Demand.

 

Intel Sunsets Controversial 'Pay-to-Unlock' Hardware Feature

 

This business model, which involved charging for on-demand access to accelerator IP already present within Xeon processors, was met with widespread criticism from the tech community. Intel offered two payment structures for the service: a pay-as-you-go model or a one-time fee for permanent activation.


Intel Sunsets Controversial 'Pay-to-Unlock' Hardware Feature

 

Over the past one to two years, Intel has made virtually no public mention of the On Demand service, leading to speculation that the controversial program was being phased out. It now appears that this process is complete, and the feature is being officially discontinued.

According to a report by Phoronix, the final confirmation of this move comes from the archiving of the Intel SDSi GitHub project.


Intel Sunsets Controversial 'Pay-to-Unlock' Hardware Feature

 

The GitHub repository was officially marked as archived in November of last year. This action, combined with the lack of promotion and the removal of related web pages from Intel's website, confirms that the pay-to-unlock model is being retired. Currently, only a few old PDF documents related to the service can be found on Intel's official site, marking the end of a contentious chapter for the chipmaker.

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