Intel has quietly deprecated its Software Defined Silicon initiative, known as Intel On Demand, by archiving the official GitHub repository for SDSi for Xeon that was 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 additional capabilities on hardware they already owned, but the model never gained mass traction and the project was only sporadically maintained. Large cloud providers that operate at massive scale saw little sense in paying an additional fee to enable a feature on silicon they had already purchased, which contributed to Intel’s decision to abandon the effort in favor of more conventional approaches.
Under the original plan, Intel wanted to make accelerators such as Quick Assist, Dynamic Load Balancer, and Data Streaming Accelerator available as On Demand features, alongside Software Guard Extensions and the In-Memory Analytics Accelerator. On the Intel On Demand website, these offerings were positioned as a one-time activation of select CPU accelerators and security features that would be permanently enabled after purchase. That framing drew a clear distinction from subscription services that are similar in concept but generally apply to software on a monthly basis rather than one-time hardware activations tied to a specific processor.
Following the quiet deprecation of the program, the Intel On Demand site has been reworked and now removes most information, leaving only a few documents and paragraphs that reference the former model. The retreat suggests that the idea of putting hardware features behind a paywall has not gained traction for now, keeping the paywall model largely confined to traditional software instead of silicon-level capabilities. Enthusiasts had previously speculated that Intel On Demand could trickle down to consumer CPUs, but with the project apparently dead, that scenario appears unlikely in the near term. Intel Upgrade Service existed in a similar format back in early 2010s but was also short-lived, underscoring the long-running resistance to post-purchase unlocking of processor features.
