Intel Cancels Pay-to-Use Software Defined Silicon Initiative

Intel has quietly deprecated its Software Defined Silicon initiative (SDSi), known as “Intel On Demand,” according to a report from Phoronix. The company has archived the official GitHub repository for SDSi for Xeon, an effort intended to enable optional features on Intel’s server processors that could be unlocked for an extra fee. Intel had hoped enterprises would pay to enable these features, but the initiative never gained mass traction and was only sporadically maintained. Because hyperscalers operate at massive scale, paying an additional fee to enable a feature on silicon they had already purchased made little sense, contributing to Intel’s decision to abandon the project. Subscription services are similar in concept, but they generally apply to software on a monthly basis rather than one-time hardware activations.

Originally, Intel planned to make Quick Assist, Dynamic Load Balancer, and Data Streaming Accelerator available as On Demand features, alongside Software Guard Extensions and the In-Memory Analytics Accelerator. These were described on the Intel On Demand website as a “one-time activation of select CPU accelerators and security features.” The Intel On Demand site has since been reworked to remove most information, leaving only a few documents and paragraphs. Thankfully, the idea of putting hardware features behind a paywall has not gained traction for now, leaving the paywall model to traditional software. At one point enthusiasts wondered whether Intel On Demand would trickle down to consumer CPUs, but with the project apparently dead, that possibility seems unlikely in the near term.