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Ask HN: When will Intel start selling chips that are not vulnerable to Meltdown

33 points by phyller 9y ago

They were informed on June 1, 2017, and appear to have been selling vulnerable chips since then. I have not seen anything indicating that the chips being produced today are not vulnerable. When is this going to end?

chrisparton1991 9y ago
Good question, I did some Googling and couldn't find anything either. Interestingly, not a single result is returned when searching "Meltdown" in Intel's website. Hopefully Intel will fill us in soon.
larrymcp 9y ago
And an interesting follow-on question would be: of the OS patches now being implemented which sometimes cause a performance hit, will that code later be able to detect when it's running on a "fixed" processor? So that it can turn off the unneeded extra protections when running on a newer chip?
- freehunter 9y ago
  Another interesting follow one (I think): if the OS patches cause the performance hit, would the hardware fix not cause the same (or similar) performance impact?
- earenndil 9y ago
  Last I checked: the linux kernel initially had a comment saying something to the effect of "assume all x86 processors are vulnerable." Later, they added a check for amd, which they don't do mitigations on. It seems likely they'll add another check, when future processors come out. As for windows and macosx, it's up for speculation. No other OSes yet have mitigations in place.
InclinedPlane 9y ago
The more pertinent question is whether or not Intel (or AMD or ARM CPU makers) will release a new chip that is out of the box still vulnerable to meltdown or spectre when running unpatched OSes.
beamatronic 9y ago
Perhaps they already have. Are there older chips that do not have the issue?
- taejo 9y ago
  None in the x64 architecture. x86 chips before the Pentium Pro don't have it. Itanium apparently doesn't either.
gtirloni 9y ago
If the issue is completely fixed by the latest firmware update, they could be selling chips that are not vulnerable tomorrow. The question is what's on that firmware update and does it fix the issue completely. Last I checked, the kernel fixes only check if it's running on an Intel processor (and exclude AMD). They aren't checking if they are running on a certain revision of the chip. That could probably change very quickly if the firmware is indeed the full fix. Otherwise expect new silicon to arrive in 6-18 months.
PaulHoule 9y ago
Maybe the same time we see 10nm chips from Intel and Optane DIMMs.

33 points by phyller 9y ago

chrisparton1991 9y ago

Good question, I did some Googling and couldn't find anything either. Interestingly, not a single result is returned when searching "Meltdown" in Intel's website. Hopefully Intel will fill us in soon.

larrymcp 9y ago

And an interesting follow-on question would be: of the OS patches now being implemented which sometimes cause a performance hit, will that code later be able to detect when it's running on a "fixed" processor? So that it can turn off the unneeded extra protections when running on a newer chip?

freehunter 9y ago
Another interesting follow one (I think): if the OS patches cause the performance hit, would the hardware fix not cause the same (or similar) performance impact?
earenndil 9y ago
Last I checked: the linux kernel initially had a comment saying something to the effect of "assume all x86 processors are vulnerable." Later, they added a check for amd, which they don't do mitigations on. It seems likely they'll add another check, when future processors come out. As for windows and macosx, it's up for speculation. No other OSes yet have mitigations in place.

InclinedPlane 9y ago

The more pertinent question is whether or not Intel (or AMD or ARM CPU makers) will release a new chip that is out of the box still vulnerable to meltdown or spectre when running unpatched OSes.

beamatronic 9y ago

Perhaps they already have. Are there older chips that do not have the issue?

taejo 9y ago
None in the x64 architecture. x86 chips before the Pentium Pro don't have it. Itanium apparently doesn't either.

gtirloni 9y ago

If the issue is completely fixed by the latest firmware update, they could be selling chips that are not vulnerable tomorrow. The question is what's on that firmware update and does it fix the issue completely. Last I checked, the kernel fixes only check if it's running on an Intel processor (and exclude AMD). They aren't checking if they are running on a certain revision of the chip. That could probably change very quickly if the firmware is indeed the full fix. Otherwise expect new silicon to arrive in 6-18 months.

PaulHoule 9y ago

Maybe the same time we see 10nm chips from Intel and Optane DIMMs.