Thoughts on software-defined silicon

Meh, from a technical perspective, there's no reason the licenses have to be sold individually. You could instead publish one set of "licenses" that everyone is allowed to download and copy freely, but they're all signed so you can't modify them. Maybe you also publish a separate signing key that allows users to make their own private "licenses" with untested combinations of features, with the proviso that "this might brick your hardware, don't ask for your money back if it does." Regardless of the specifics, an "open" version of this sort of thing could exist, if Intel wanted to make it.

The point is, you can decouple the technical aspect from the economic aspect, at least to some extent. Locked hardware exists because it is economically favored for it to exist. You can't "solve" the "problem" of locked hardware; it is not a technical problem in the first place. As long as those economic incentives continue to exist, it is inevitable that Intel, and other chip manufacturers, will produce and sell locked hardware.