Indeed, but what is Intel up to these days - at least eight different variations of attack here? And let's not forget about the whole Intel ME thing, either. B

Indeed, but what is Intel up to these days - at least eight different variations of attack here? And let's not forget about the whole Intel ME thing, either. BTW, just because a speculative execution attack or whatever is theoretically possible on an IBM system doesn't necessarily mean that it can be carried out in any practical sense, given the overall design of those systems and their general level of built-in security. But IBM can't just sit there and ignore the possibility, either. Another problem they have these days relates to open source software and such, which they've been porting to their platforms much more lately. If a security patch for that software comes out then they still have to apply it, even if there may be no practical way to exploit it on their systems. And it can be quite unnerving to see long lists of such patches show up on a regular basis for systems which are otherwise generally considered to be rock solid.