Chip giant Intel is supposedly testing the market for upgradeable CPUs, which will initially have certain extra performance features locked or disabled, so that upgrade cards can be bought by users at a later stage in case they wish to improve the performance of their processors.

According to Intel, the upgradeable CPUs option will help increase the profit margins of resellers and system builders, as users will be able to unlock the extra performance features after they pay a fee and enter a code.

That Intel is rolling out upgradeable processors is evident from the fact that Best Buy has recently listed Intel’s $50-priced Processor Performance Upgrade Card, which will allow users to unlock the full 1MB of L3 cache as well as HyperThreading support on the new, low-cost Pentium G6951 processor.

Noting that the company is “rolling out a small pilot program offering performance upgrades on Intel Pentium G6951 Processors,” Intel elaborated: “Intel Upgrade Service enables down-the-wire upgrades of PC platform capabilities after the initial hardware shipment, offering unprecedented flexibility to resellers. Now your customers have more options with an easy upgrade path for additional performance or features when they are needed.”

As per further details forwarded by the company, the pilot program is currently available to a limited number of customers in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands (OHAI), and Spain.