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Kernel-memory-leaking Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign | Pe

Submitted by: SINep @ 08:23 PM | Wednesday, January 3, 2018 | (url: https://www.there...)

A fundamental design flaw in Intel's processor chips has forced a significant redesign of the Linux and Windows kernels to defang the chip-level security bug.

Programmers are scrambling to overhaul the open-source Linux kernel's virtual memory system. Meanwhile, Microsoft is expected to publicly introduce the necessary changes to its Windows operating system in an upcoming Patch Tuesday: these changes were seeded to beta testers running fast-ring Windows Insider builds in November and December.

Crucially, these updates to both Linux and Windows will incur a performance hit on Intel products. The effects are still being benchmarked, however we're looking at a ballpark figure of five to 30 per cent slow down, depending on the task and the processor model. More recent Intel chips have features such as PCID to reduce the performance hit. Your mileage may vary.

Best case: 17% slowdown
Worst case: 23% slowdown
The Register (@TheRegister) January 2, 2018

Similar operating systems, such as Apple's 64-bit macOS, will also need to be updated the flaw is in the Intel x86-64 hardware, and it appears a microcode update can't address it. It has to be fixed in software at the OS level, or go buy a new processor without the design blunder.

Details of the vulnerability within Intel's silicon are under wraps: an embargo on the specifics is due to lift early this month, perhaps in time for Microsoft's Patch Tuesday next week. Indeed, patches for the Linux kernel are available for all to see but comments in the source code have been redacted to obfuscate the issue.

However, some details of the flaw have surfaced, and so this is what we know.


More:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/


Remote security exploit in all 2008+ Intel platforms

Submitted by: Odio @ 05:13 PM | Monday, May 1, 2017 | (url: https://semiaccur...)

The short version is that every Intel platform with AMT, ISM, and SBT from Nehalem in 2008 to Kaby Lake in 2017 has a remotely exploitable security hole in the ME (Management Engine) not CPU firmware. If this isnt scary enough news, even if your machine doesnt have SMT, ISM, or SBT provisioned, it is still vulnerable, just not over the network. For the moment. From what SemiAccurate gathers, there is literally no Intel box made in the last 9+ years that isnt at risk. This is somewhere between nightmarish and apocalyptic.

First a little bit of background. SemiAccurate has known about this vulnerability for literally years now, it came up in research we were doing on hardware backdoors over five years ago. What we found was scary on a level that literally kept us up at night. For obvious reasons we couldnt publish what we found out but we took every opportunity to beg anyone who could even tangentially influence the right people to do something about this security problem. SemiAccurate explained the problem to literally dozens of right people to seemingly no avail. We also strongly hinted that it existed at every chance we had.

Various Intel representatives over the years took my words seriously, told me I was crazy, denied that the problem could exist, and even gave SemiAccurate rather farcical technical reasons why their position wasnt wrong. Or dangerous. In return we smiled politely, argued technically, and sometimes, usually actually, were not so polite about our viewpoint. Unfortunately it all seems to have been for naught.

Category: Technology | 22 Comments
Tags: intel

Intels Earnings Up an Astounding 875%

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 09:09 AM | Friday, January 15, 2010 | (url: http://mashable.c...)

The worlds largest chipmaker just wowed Wall Street and the tech world with its latest earnings report. The publicly-traded company reported a net income of $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, up an amazing 875% from its $234 million earnings in the fourth quarter of 2008. This more than beat Wall Street expectations.

While we wont go into detail over the financial numbers (you can do that here [PDF]), we do want to highlight some of the key stats:

- Revenues in Q4 2009 rose to $10.6 billion, a climb of 28% from $8.3 billion last year.

- However, if you look at the big picture, Intel had a better 2008 than 2009. 2009 revenues were $35.1 billion, while 2008 revenues reached $37.6 billion. Thats a 7% difference.

- Intel predicts revenues of approximately $9.7 billion in Q1 2010, above Wall Street estimates.

- Around a year ago, at the heart of the economic collapse, Intel decided to invest $7 billion into new chip plants. It looks to be paying off.

Intels Q4 report is one of the first to come out this year, but it wont be the last. If Intels numbers are any indication though, were nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Category: Hardware | 20 Comments
Tags: intel

Intel to Pay AMD 1.25 Billion Dollars

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 08:54 AM | Thursday, November 12, 2009 | (url: http://www.pcmag....)

Advanced Micro Devices and Intel have agreed to settle their outstanding litigation, and Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion as a result, the two companies said Thursday.

The settlement ends all litigation between the two companies, including a Delaware case and two cases in Japan. The U.S. case was scheduled to go to trial in 2010.

"While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development," the two companies said in a statement.

AMD executives had declined to comment at an AMD analyst day on Thursday about the possibility of a settlement.

Under the terms of the agreement, AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement, Intel and AMD will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement, and Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion. Intel has also agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions, the companies said.


Nvidia Halting Nforce Chipset Development

Submitted by: Beren @ 08:05 PM | Thursday, October 8, 2009 | (url: http://www.pcmag....)

Nvidia has announced it will cease development of future Nforce hardware until its suit with Intel is settled sometime in 2010. Intel has alleged that a previous chipset agreement between it and Nvidia does not apply to the Core or Nehalem series of processors.


Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition Processor

Submitted by: Das Capitolin @ 08:03 PM | Sunday, November 16, 2008 | (url: http://benchmarkr...)

In this article Benchmark Reviews covers the Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition (XE). We have now had sufficient time to spend with Core i7 series and our knowledge base on these processors and their supporting components has grown exponentially. In our first article, Intel Core i7 CPU & DX58SO X58 Platform we covered most of the available information regarding both the Nehalem Technology and the architecture used with the Intel Core i7 Processor family.


Intel Core i7 CPU & DX58SO X58 Platform

Submitted by: Das Capitolin @ 09:06 PM | Sunday, November 2, 2008 | (url: http://benchmarkr...)

In today's segment we will cover an overview of the technological aspects of the Core i7 processor series and the X58 motherboard that supports it. We'll test all three of the processors using a succinct series of benchmarks run a stock processor speeds and draw the necessary conclusions from their results. What else is left you might ask? Believe me when I say that's only scratching the surface. In future reviews we'll concentrate on individual product components and expound in much greater detail on that product's performance capabilities including overclocking.


ASUS P5E64 WS Pro X38 Motherboard

Submitted by: Das Capitolin @ 01:16 PM | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 | (url: http://benchmarkr...)

As predicted for this year, the dizzying high prices of DDR3 have finally dropped to within reason- and further DDR3 price drops are expected to continue into the fourth quarter and means many will be looking for quality motherboards suitable for high-speed DDR3. That being the case Benchmark Reviews thought it would be of interest to examine one of the more mature DDR3 based motherboard offerings on the market today; the ASUS P5E64 WS Professional Motherboard based on Intel's 3 series X38 Express Chipset with support for unheard of "Quad" graphics.


Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 Motherboard

Submitted by: Das Capitolin @ 12:25 AM | Wednesday, August 6, 2008 | (url: http://benchmarkr...)

There are two kinds of computer enthusiasts in this world: those with a personal connection to the system motherboard, and those who simply refer to the part as a computer mainboard. For overclockers, the relationship with a well-designed motherboard can mean love or hate, and no two parts are alike. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 Ultra-Durable 2 DES motherboard against our harsh overclocking demands.


Overclockers push 8-core Skulltrail to 6 GHz: Dual-socket overclocking confirmed

Submitted by: Fox k @ 01:47 PM | Thursday, April 17, 2008 | (url: http://www.tgdail...)

Las Vegas (NV) When Intel released its Skulltrail platform, the main focus of this extreme computing platform was on overclocking capabilities. Dual-socket motherboards traditionally have not been a prime target for overclocking anyway, so this was an interesting proposition from Intel anyway. Now we know that Skulltrail has lots of headroom.

Overclocking with advanced air-cooling can take Skulltrail from 3.2 GHz to 4 GHz. 4.5 GHz is reportedly manageable with a modest water-cooling system. Not surprisingly, there is a lot more capability in this platform if take an extreme Skulltrail a bit more extreme


AMD to fire 10% of its employees

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 10:29 AM | Tuesday, April 8, 2008 | (url: http://online.wsj...)

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. projected a sharp drop in first-quarter revenue and announced a 10% reduction in its work force, as technical gaffes and softening computer demand afflicted the chip maker.

The job cuts will affect about 1,680 workers at the Sunnyvale, Calif., company, which previously employed 16,800, an AMD spokesman said.

AMD, locked in a battle with Intel Corp. over chips known as microprocessors, said it expects first-quarter revenue of $1.5 billion, about 15% lower than the company reported in the fourth period. The company previously had predicted a decline in line with normal seasonal patterns. The AMD spokesman said a decline of about 7% is typical for the period.


PC Gaming Alliance Launched

Submitted by: GlassShadow @ 10:57 PM | Wednesday, February 20, 2008 | (url: http://www.pcgami...)

The Games for Windows program which Microsoft have been marketing for a while attempted to unify or at least strive for certain levels of consistency between titles. Microsoft have now partnered with a collection of hardware manufacturers, developers and publishers in order to bring to life the PC Gaming Alliance.

Founding companies within the PC Gaming Alliance include Activision, Microsoft, Epic, nVidia, AMD, Intel, Dell, Acer, Alienware and Gateway.

In a presentation given at GDC, the PC Gaming Alliance have announced their mission as a non profit organisation to 'drive worldwide growth of PC gaming'.


Intel G45 & G43 Details

Submitted by: Soul @ 11:41 PM | Monday, February 11, 2008 | (url: http://www.techar...)

Rumours have been going around about the new Intel G45 Express (Eaglelake-G) and G43 Express desktop chipsets that come with integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator. Well, there's no need to wonder any longer. We have proof that Intel will be releasing the two chipsets in Q2, 2008. The exact date is still up in the air, but we heard that it would be sometime in April 2008.

Category: Hardware | 0 Comments
Tags: g43 g45 intel

Intel Unveils 16 New Processors

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 05:34 AM | Tuesday, January 8, 2008 | (url: http://enthusiast...)

For those of you wondering just what Intel had up its sleeve for the new year, we can tell you this, the company just unveiled sixteen new processors. The good news today is that there is a processor for just about everyone on the list, from the Core2 Duo to the Core 2 Duo Extreme with everything in between (quad core Xeons).


While it seems only yesterday that 65nm process got to the enthusiast, Intel is today telling us about very affordable 45nm processors that are ready to come to market.

Category: Hardware | 1 Comments
Tags: cpu intel

Intel Demonstrates Industry's First 32nm Chip...

Submitted by: DudeofDeath @ 09:31 AM | Wednesday, September 19, 2007 | (url: http://www.physor...)

Speaking to industry leaders, developers and industry watchers at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), Otellini showed the industry's first working chips built using 32 nanometer (nm) technology, with transistors so small that more than 4 million of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. Intel's 32nm process technology is on track to begin production in 2009.

Category: Technology | 5 Comments
Tags: 32nm chips intel