Intel is about to add in-chip purchases, as soon as possible or on the Xeon W-14xx series

Previously, there were media reports that Intel released a Linux patch in September last year to support drivers called "Intel Software-Defined Chips (SDSi)". This means that Intel may add in-chip purchasing capabilities to processors in the future, provide more optional additional hardware features for users to upgrade, and if necessary, purchase an upgraded license, and activate it in a specific way.

According to Phronix, an extension of Intel's SDSi support feature has been added to the Linux 5.18 kernel, and if nothing unexpectedly will be used on future products, SDSi-enabled devices are listed as PCIe VSEC features on Intel Out of Band Managed Services Module (OOBMSM) devices. It's unclear when Intel will start using the SDSi feature, but this approach focuses more on enterprise-grade Xeon processors than on consumer-grade Core processors.

As described, SDSi is a post-manufacturing mechanism for activating additional chip hardware functions that are enabled through license activation. The SDSi driver provides the application with an ioctl interface corresponding to the socket to perform three main configuration functions, including:

1. Provide an Authentication Key Certificate (AKC), which is a key written to the internal NVRAM to verify the activation of a specific payload for a specific function.

2. Provide Activation Payload Capability (CAP), which is a token that uses AKC authentication and is applied to cpu configuration to activate new features.

3. Read the SDSi status certificate, including the CPU configuration status.

Intel is rumored to add support for SDSi features to the next generation of Xeon Scalable processors, sapphire Rapids, which will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year. However, it is also reported that Xeon W-14xx series processors using Alder Lake-S may be the first to introduce new features.