CoD was just the expansion to Power-based systems.
The System/360 machines were typically leased, not sold. And the leases had different tiers for different clock speeds. If you decided you needed more power, you'd call up IBM, accept a more expensive contract, their service rep would show up, unlock a padlock on the machine, open a panel, turn a knob, close and lock the machine again, and leave.
It's better than what they used to do, when they killed parts of the CPU to match the SKUs they needed to sell. At least you can pay Intel to enable things.
Or that part of the CPU was dead to begin with; every wafer of silicon has some defects, but if these defects hit a part of the chip they can disable, they can avoid wasting a whole chip. Of course, if there's high enough demand for the SKU without that part, and low enough demand for the SKU with that part working, they might kill that part even when it's defect-free.
(Of course, if the part can be enabled "on demand", it means that the disabled part must be working, so they cannot be reusing partially defective chips; it smells like a cash grab.)
For Intel, it also helps to fine tune the product lineup by getting more detailed usage information.
This is the future I was waiting for.
You pay base price for a mid-range server. You pay the difference to enable the accelerators, if you need them.
What is the problem with that?
Because, I guess, Intel will charge a premium for these SKUs anyway, because they have unlockable features inside.
So, you'll pay twice for the privilege.
I'm guessing it has had some popularity among customers as it has been around at least for a decade.