What is new for the Tabular model in SQL Server 2012 SP1 and compatibility level

On the surface the SQL Server 2012 SP1 looks very much like SQL Server 2012 RTM but there are some hidden gems in there that will make you upgrade to SP1. This blog post will describe why you would want to upgrade your machines to SP1.

The first thing to know is that this SP1 is not a normal service pack, it is no coincidence that SP1 comes at the same time Excel 2013 RTM. As most of you probably know by now is that PowerPivot including the Analysis services engine ships inside Excel 2013. In order for us to be able to integrate the engine into Excel we had to change many internals of the engine, that caused it to be no longer backwards compatible with PowerPivot and our tabular engine as we knew it in RTM.