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Intel To Drop CPU ID Number

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the pats-on-the-back dept.

slashdoter writes: "Looks like Intel is giving up the ID number thing on the CPU. They will still have it on the PIII but the Willamette will be like the older PII. " Guess the boycott over the fiasco is at an end. Cool that Intel listens to consumers.

3 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. I am not a number... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    I am a free CPU

  2. The Id Number was a good idea gone bad by The+Infamous+TommyD · · Score: 5

    I have this straight from one of Intel's senior researchers. The original concept was that the CPU ID would be used for tracking assets in an organization. Inventory type stuff. This was actually asked for by major IT departments.

    Then: The marketing dept. got hold of the ID number and started asking around about what it could be used for and someone said oooh, e-commerce! It was then that things got out of control and everyone got onto Intel for tracking them, etc.

    The sad thing is that you don't need a CPU id if you allow your adversary to execute arbitrary code on your machine.(which you would have to do to allow someone to read your ID #) I mean a nice unique ID number is available by running /sbin/ifconfig

  3. removed? by coreman · · Score: 5

    or just reimplemented in an undocumented way?

    Even paranoids have enemies