Computers Intel processor security flaw will result in slower computers

[Second Summer]

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.

More: 'Kernel memory leaking' Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign (2. Jan. 2018)

Ouch! Other OSes are expected to follow suit soon. And the problem is not limited to desktop computers; cloud services are impacted as well. The expected 5-30% performance hit, depending on the exact Intel processor, could turn out to cause major pain across the world.

 

[Second Summer]

The Intel bug or security flaw now has a name: Meltdown. Another processor security flaw which affects Intel as well as AMD and ARM processors has been named Spectre.

Meltdown is currently thought to primarily affect Intel processors manufactured since 1995, excluding the company’s Itanium server chips and Atom processors before 2013. It could allow hackers to bypass the hardware barrier between applications run by users and the computer’s core memory. Meltdown, therefore, requires a change to the way the operating system handles memory to fix, which initial speed estimates predict could affect the speed of the machine in certain tasks by as much as 30%.

More: Meltdown and Spectre: ‘worst CPU bugs ever’ affect virtually all computers (4. January 2018)

Edit: The flaws also have their own logos! Kinda cool

 

[PTree15]

Good God, this is since 1995???? Wow! That is a ton of computers. Unreal.