Features that are locked off permanently are less scummy. It's a bad way of emulating different production lines, but at least it doesn't let them charge ongoing rent.
If I am not mistaken sometimes this is due to yield rates in chip manufacturing. Iirc there were 3 core pentiums at some point that were basically faulty 4 core chips where one core did not pass QC.
Often times though, the cores are fused because they are malfunctioning. If the option is between that and just getting rid of the CPU, I'd rather they do that.
It's heavily implemented in Cisco and juniper routers for serious ISP applications. In addition to yearly paid support contracts for operating system updates.
Of the to of my head:
* Intel xeon processors have software defined feature sets that are unlocked by a license.
* Nvidia low hash rate GPUs
* Nvidia vGPU on consumer GPUs (there are hacks to enable it)
* hardware video / audio encoders in mobile processors that require licensing to use.
* Sony cameras have licenses that allow you to unlock extra features
* Cisco do this all the time with their router HW.
Features that are locked off permanently are less scummy. It's a bad way of emulating different production lines, but at least it doesn't let them charge ongoing rent.
If I am not mistaken sometimes this is due to yield rates in chip manufacturing. Iirc there were 3 core pentiums at some point that were basically faulty 4 core chips where one core did not pass QC.
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I don’t like the idea, but CPUs have long been an example (fused at the factory to disable cores, for example).
Often times though, the cores are fused because they are malfunctioning. If the option is between that and just getting rid of the CPU, I'd rather they do that.
It's heavily implemented in Cisco and juniper routers for serious ISP applications. In addition to yearly paid support contracts for operating system updates.
TBF though it seems like large companies love paying through the nose for support contracts so managers can point fingers when things go wrong.