"Intel's ability to upgrade the processor microcode on the fly with a special encrypted system.... Those of you who bought the Intel chips can make the upgrade now (possibly at no cost) with a simple download. And you poor suckers who bought a competitor's product--well, better luck next time. Ha ha!"
From PC Magazine, November 18, 1997
zdnet.com
Inside Track
By John C. Dvorak
There are strong rumors in the Valley that Intel is planning to add new instructions to the MMX instruction set. Since MMX has been in the field for a while, the need for additional instructions is becoming more apparent. Also, Intel is serious about putting more 3-D functionality on the chip itself. The problem here is marketing. Or so it seems. I can't believe that after what Intel went through to move the public to MMX in the first place, it's willing to risk a fiasco by immediately making obsolete yet another generation of computers.
But recent revelations point to Intel's ability to upgrade the processor microcode on the fly with a special encrypted system. Is it possible that by using this upgrade technology Intel can add the new MMX instructions after the fact? Imagine this from the marketing side. You bring out MMX chips and move all users to MMX. Your competitors - AMD and Cyrix - add MMX to their chips and play along. You let everyone get used to MMX and make sure that AMD and Cyrix are fully ramped.
Then you pull the rug out from under everyone with additional (and important) MMX instructions. Gee, guess what? Those of you who bought the Intel chips can make the upgrade now (possibly at no cost) with a simple download. And you poor suckers who bought a competitor's product--well, better luck next time. Ha ha!
This potential scenario explains a couple of odd events. First, the field upgradability of the new Pentium chips was kept a secret well past the introduction of the chip. Only when a new bug was discovered was Intel's ability to upgrade the chip on the fly revealed. Suddenly this upgrade "feature" is a godsend that will fix flaws; at least, this is what seemed reasonable to say at the time. But what if this feature was never meant to fix flaws? I was always baffled that Intel took so long to give us the news regarding this feature, even after the bug was discovered. I've concluded it was because all future chips will have bugs that need fixing, and this is the cheapest solution.
But no company believes that its final product will have bugs. This field-upgrade feature would be a virtual admission of guilt. And if such a feature were in the chip, don't you think the company would leverage it in the market with promotion? So what would be a better use for such a technology, and why would you want to keep it a secret? To ambush the competition, it seems to me. Amazing if true. |
