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> Intel will just maintain the status quo until there's some sort of black swan event. I absolutely hate Intel and AMD for sabotaging their customers like that

> Intel will just maintain the status quo until there's some sort of black swan event. I absolutely hate Intel and AMD for sabotaging their customers like that. Please people, get to that black swan event ASAP.

Filligree 9y ago
If we're unlucky, the 'black swan event' will be something along the likes of Pluto's Kiss. Imagine a Morris worm equivalent, but which bricks the computers it infects after destroying the filesystem. Even if everyone has backups of everything, offline, it'll be years before all the destroyed computers can actually be replaced. This isn't a scenario I want to happen for real.
- LeoPanthera 9y ago
  On the plus side, you can probably guarantee it would only ever happen once.
  - Zopieux 9y ago
    Haha, no, you can't. Since when do humans learn from their mistakes?
    - knowaveragejoe 9y ago
      Not infrequently, but it's in vogue to hold the belief that they don't.
- abecedarius 9y ago
  You could do some much more interesting things with a hack than wiping and bricking a bunch of computers, even if the bricking part is doable.
madez 9y ago
I also hate Intel and AMD for that, but I think they'd prefer we didn't hate them. I conclude that there are big reasons to still do what we hate them for. I'm afraid even a black swan event wouldn't make those reasons go away. What I think needs to happen is for other countries to realize this issue is a matter of national security, and to fund development of alternatives.
- na85 9y ago
  They don't care at all if we hate them, because we're still buying their chips en masse.
  - madez 9y ago
    Well, I will not buy an Intel CPU anymore. I also try to avoid Intel in all other chip classes like networking chips where Intel is suspiciously active. Sometimes I wonder if their name is giveaway that people just don't realize. Soon I intend to move to an Intel-free single board computer for my day-to-day computer usage. Now, for other people I can't speak.
eightysixfour 9y ago
As a note, the latest AGESA for Ryzen seems to have the ability to turn off the PSP, it is showing up in some of the latest beta bios releases. No official statement yet, but some info can be had here: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-PSP-Disable-Option https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-PSP-...
- sounds 9y ago
  "BIOS PSP Support disabled" is the only statement we have, in the form of a new option in the BIOS Setup. That sounds like the equivalent of "HECI Disabled" for Intel BIOSes, which has been around for years. It doesn't do anything to shut down the hidden CPU (PSP). It just sends a command to disable the bridge over to the main CPU. All the other ways of talking to the PSP remain open.
  - eightysixfour 9y ago
    ASRock support says it disables CPU <-> PSP communication. https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7j2i8f/asrock_replies_to_my_questions_about_the_psp/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7j2i8f/asrock_replies_...

Filligree 9y ago

If we're unlucky, the 'black swan event' will be something along the likes of Pluto's Kiss. Imagine a Morris worm equivalent, but which bricks the computers it infects after destroying the filesystem. Even if everyone has backups of everything, offline, it'll be years before all the destroyed computers can actually be replaced. This isn't a scenario I want to happen for real.

LeoPanthera 9y ago
On the plus side, you can probably guarantee it would only ever happen once.
- Zopieux 9y ago
  Haha, no, you can't. Since when do humans learn from their mistakes?
  - knowaveragejoe 9y ago
    Not infrequently, but it's in vogue to hold the belief that they don't.
abecedarius 9y ago
You could do some much more interesting things with a hack than wiping and bricking a bunch of computers, even if the bricking part is doable.

madez 9y ago

I also hate Intel and AMD for that, but I think they'd prefer we didn't hate them. I conclude that there are big reasons to still do what we hate them for. I'm afraid even a black swan event wouldn't make those reasons go away. What I think needs to happen is for other countries to realize this issue is a matter of national security, and to fund development of alternatives.

na85 9y ago
They don't care at all if we hate them, because we're still buying their chips en masse.
- madez 9y ago
  Well, I will not buy an Intel CPU anymore. I also try to avoid Intel in all other chip classes like networking chips where Intel is suspiciously active. Sometimes I wonder if their name is giveaway that people just don't realize. Soon I intend to move to an Intel-free single board computer for my day-to-day computer usage. Now, for other people I can't speak.

eightysixfour 9y ago

As a note, the latest AGESA for Ryzen seems to have the ability to turn off the PSP, it is showing up in some of the latest beta bios releases. No official statement yet, but some info can be had here: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-PSP-Disable-Option https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-PSP-...

sounds 9y ago
"BIOS PSP Support disabled" is the only statement we have, in the form of a new option in the BIOS Setup. That sounds like the equivalent of "HECI Disabled" for Intel BIOSes, which has been around for years. It doesn't do anything to shut down the hidden CPU (PSP). It just sends a command to disable the bridge over to the main CPU. All the other ways of talking to the PSP remain open.
- eightysixfour 9y ago
  ASRock support says it disables CPU <-> PSP communication. https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7j2i8f/asrock_replies_to_my_questions_about_the_psp/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7j2i8f/asrock_replies_...