Intel Details Cascade Lake, Hardware Mitigations for Meltdown, Spectre

Intel Details Cascade Lake, Hardware Mitigations for Meltdown, Spectre

Ever since Meltdown and Spectre were disclosed, Intel’s various customers have been asking how long it would take for hardware fixes to these problems to ship. The fixes will deploy with Cascade Lake, Intel’s next server platform due later this year, but the company is finally lifting the lid on some of those improvements and security enhancements at Hot Chips this week.

Intel Details Cascade Lake, Hardware Mitigations for Meltdown, Spectre

Variant 1 will still require software-level protections, while Variant 2 (that’s the “classic” Spectre attack) will require a mixture of hardware and software protection. Variant 3 (Meltdown) will be blocked in hardware, 3a (discovered by ARM) patched via firmware, with Variant 5 (Foreshadow) also patched in hardware. Firmware fixes can be treated as equivalent to hardware since the new systems that’ll launch with Cascade Lake will include them by default.

Intel Details Cascade Lake, Hardware Mitigations for Meltdown, Spectre
Intel Details Cascade Lake, Hardware Mitigations for Meltdown, Spectre

Overall demand for these parts is expected to be robust, given how rapidly the IT industry is shifting to cloud computing. Any talk of fallout from the initial disclosures has been limited, and there’s no sign that anyone has treated the issue as a reason to jump ship from Intel and adopt its competitors’ hardware. If ARM or AMD are seeing an uptick in adoptions based on these security issues, they have yet to say so.

Continue reading

All AMD CPUs Found Harboring Meltdown-Like Security Flaw
All AMD CPUs Found Harboring Meltdown-Like Security Flaw

A new Meltdown-style security flaw has been detected, this time on AMD CPUs. Both AMD and Intel have been affected by Spectre and Meltdown, but Intel has historically been hit harder.

Should Spectre, Meltdown Be the Death Knell for the x86 Standard?
Should Spectre, Meltdown Be the Death Knell for the x86 Standard?

Spectre and Meltdown are serious CPU flaws, but do they warrant throwing out the entire closed-source CPU model?

Microsoft Pulls Spectre, Meltdown Patches for Older AMD Systems
Microsoft Pulls Spectre, Meltdown Patches for Older AMD Systems

Microsoft has halted the distribution of patches for Spectre, Meltdown on some AMD systems due to problems with BSODs and bricked systems.

AMD Releases Updated Risk Guidance on Meltdown, Spectre
AMD Releases Updated Risk Guidance on Meltdown, Spectre

AMD has clarified its own weaknesses against Spectre and Meltdown. One week later, things aren't quite as rosy as AMD hoped they'd be.