Thoughts on software-defined silicon

> E-waste is definitely bad and nobody (to within experimental error) really enjoys re-selling parts.

I'm sure there however are people who enjoy having used kit available at a discount.

> The concern is that Intel might decide that you only get to have an i9 if you pay them $5 a month or something, and if you stop paying then it goes back to being an i5. As far as I'm aware, there is no law or regulation which unambiguously says they can't do that.

Yes and there are a few more things they could do, for example only sell the most basic feature set (single core x86-64) and then sell all the additional capability at a monthly fee structure. And they can decide to on longer rent the features out unless you get a new CPU. Getting downgraded to an i5 may not be so bad, getting downgraded to a 1 core i3 with no turbo probably renders the machine almost unusable and with zero resale value - though at this point you're likely renting / leasing the whole thing anyways which means it's no longer really your computer.