[JohannMac]

Common to have unique SN in a processor. Let the SW vendors do copy protection too. E.g. at Sonos we used them to associate with the software signed certificate such that you couldn't run a given Players software on another Player without the same SN. When making products via contract manufactures, especially in China, it was a wise procedure.

[snailmailman]

When I built my pc the cpu came with some free game or game coupon or something. It wasn’t in the box, I instead had to download and run some AMD software that verified that I was in fact using the CPU. I’m under the impression that it detected my specific CPU not just make/model but some sort of unique ID. Presumably this stops people from claiming the code and reselling the cpu,(or at least without reselling it as “new”) or from spinning up a VM and trying to redeem random promos without owning the real CPU.

Thought it was interesting that they did that but didn’t think much more of it. I don’t even remember what the promo was. Might have just been extended warranty or something?

[verst]

In November I activated such an AMD Promo for my Ryzen 5000X. The game I got was Far Cry 6. Hilarious because the game keeps getting delayed to now mid September or so of this year, almost a year after I bought the CPU. Not exactly the best Promo to show off the power of the CPU :)

[userbinator]

There are a lot of unique identifiers in a PC, not just on the CPU but various ones in the motherboard (BIOS) too...

from spinning up a VM

...and you can change them, even if not easily, for a VM. AFAIK the Windows licensing/activation relies on the same uniqueness.

[anthk]

Just can just run Bochs, emulate a modern AMD CPU, and with of patience, dump the game files.

[qazxcvbnmlp]

That is glorious and horrifying. Sounds like it protects your business from counterfeits and hobby hackers at the same time :)

Also, I have a Sonos system and it works great!

[userbinator]

Horrifying should indeed be the reaction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21895086

[Daho0n]

For now (see other comment with link). I'll never touch Sonos again. They burnt their bridges.

[vangelis]

Well, until your choices are buy a new Sonos device or get bricked.