Intel’s new patch determines the brand of CPU in-app purchase features: Named “Intel On Demand”
It was reported last year that Intel would add more optional additional hardware features to processors in the future, called “Intel Software-Defined Silicon (SDSi),” so that users can upgrade, if necessary, an upgraded license is purchased and activated in a specific way.
According to Phoronix, recently Intel released a new SDSi patch to merge into Linux 5.18, showing that this in-chip purchase feature of Sapphire Rapids, branded “Intel On Demand”, will do the following:
1. Identify the driver/tools as Intel On Demand. Only text descriptions are changed. Kconfig and filenames remain the same.
2. Perform some attribute cleanup by preventing the showing of files when features are not supported.
3. Adds support for a new GUID. GUIDs are used to identify the layout of the On Demand registers in sysfs. Layouts are described in the documentation on github.
4. Add support for reading On Demand meter certificates in sysfs.
5. The rest of the patches modify the existing tool to support discovery and reading of On Demand registers and the meter certificate.
It is still unclear what features Intel will provide for post-purchase activation. Sapphire Rapids is currently known to have several specific acceleration technologies, including Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX), Dynamic Load Balancer (DLB), Intel Data Streaming Accelerator (DSA), Intel In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (IAA), and Intel QuickAssist Technology (QAT) to accelerate specific workloads.
Intel will announce Sapphire Rapids on January 10, 2023, and may reveal more information.
