- Intel shut down On Demand after customers refused to pay for idle silicon
- Archive SDSi signals the end of hardware features sold as add-ons
- Cloud buyers rejected fees for capabilities already built into processors
Intel has moved to shut down its pay-as-you-go hardware upgrade effort with little public explanation or formal announcement.
The Software Defined Silicon initiative, later called Intel On Demand, has effectively been abandoned after years of limited visibility and poor maintenance.
Evidence of this change emerged through the archiving of the Intel SDSi GitHub repository and the removal of most support pages from Intel’s own website.
Software updates are down
Software updates tied to the feature also stopped appearing, reinforcing the feeling that the program has come to an end.
This marks a clear move away from the idea that the processor’s capabilities could be unlocked after purchase through additional payments.
Intel On Demand was built around select Xeon processors that shipped with accelerators and security features disabled by default.
Customers were expected to pay one-time or through consumption-based terms to activate features like QuickAssist, Data Streaming Accelerator, or In Memory Analytics Accelerator.
According to the company, this offered flexible access to the silicon already present on the chip, but in practice, adoption remained limited and inconsistent.
Large cloud operators, which buy processors in massive quantities, showed little interest in paying additional fees to unlock features on hardware they already owned.
Buyers of smaller businesses also faced uncertainty about long-term costs and operational complexity.
The decision to move away from Intel On Demand is inevitably reminiscent of Intel’s upgrade service from the early 2010s, which allowed owners of a low-end Pentium processor to unlock additional cache and Hyper Threading by purchasing an activation code.
Although it was limited to a single model, the reaction from the specialized press and the enthusiast community was swift and hostile. The service was widely criticized and quickly discontinued.
Although Intel On Demand operated in a different market and on a much larger scale, both efforts were based on the same basic principle of charging for access to idle silicon functions.
The pay-as-you-go model of processor features has repeatedly struggled to gain acceptance, regardless of market segment or brand.
Hardware buyers generally expect physical capabilities to be fully available at the point of sale, and software licenses are treated as a separate concern.
By shelving SDSi and letting related documentation disappear, Intel appears to accept that this approach did not align with customer expectations.
Through TechPowerUp
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