• Intel shut down On Demand after customers rejected paying for dormant silicon
• Archiving SDSi signals the end of hardware features sold as add-ons
• Cloud buyers refused fees for capabilities already fused 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 sparse maintenance.

Evidence of this shift emerged through the archiving of the Intel SDSi GitHub repository and the removal of most supporting pages from Intel’s own website.

Software updates are down

Software updates linked to the feature have also stopped appearing, reinforcing the sense that the program has reached its end.

This marks a clear retreat from the idea that processor capabilities could be unlocked after purchase through additional payments.

Intel On Demand was built around selected Xeon processors that shipped with accelerators and security functions disabled by default.

Customers were expected to pay either once or through consumption-based terms to activate features such as QuickAssist, Data Streaming Accelerator, or In Memory Analytics Accelerator.

According to the company, this offered flexible access to silicon already present on the chip, but in practice, adoption remained narrow and inconsistent.

Large cloud operators, which buy processors in massive quantities, showed little interest in paying extra fees to unlock features on hardware they already owned.

Smaller enterprise buyers also faced uncertainty around long-term costs and operational complexity.

The decision to walk away from Intel On Demand inevitably recalls the Intel 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 limited to a single model, the reaction from the specialist press and enthusiast community was swift and hostile. The service was widely panned and quickly discontinued.

Although Intel On Demand operated in a different market and at a much larger scale, both efforts relied on the same basic principle of charging to access dormant silicon features.

The pay-to-use model for processor features has repeatedly struggled to gain acceptance, regardless of market segment or branding.

Hardware buyers generally expect physical capabilities to be fully available at the point of sale, with software licensing treated as a separate concern.

By archiving SDSi and letting related documentation fade away, Intel appears to accept that this approach did not align with customer expectations.

Via TechPowerUp

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Efosa has been writing about technology for over 7 years, initially driven by curiosity but now fueled by a strong passion for the field. He holds both a Master’s and a PhD in sciences, which provided him with a solid foundation in analytical thinking.