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Quote from Igno Molnar: Typically cloud computing systems such as AWS will have SMT enabled, because cloud computing pricing is essentially per vCPU, and they
by inshadows 6y ago
Quote from Igno Molnar:
Typically cloud computing systems such as AWS will have SMT enabled,
because cloud computing pricing is essentially per vCPU, and they want
to sell the hyperthreads as vCPUs. So the safest solution, disabling
SMT on affected systems, is not actually done, because it's an
economic non-starter. (I'd like to note the security double standard
there: the most secure option, to disable SMT, is not actually used ...)
- mrweasel 6y ago> Typically cloud computing systems such as AWS will have SMT enabled Isn't that counter intuitive? Cloud computing seems like the only place where you should ALWAYS disable SMT. For workstations, home computers, non-shared servers and so on, it's doesn't really matter that much and you can safely leave SMT on.
- rat9988 6y ago>Isn't that counter intuitive? They are selling threads. It seems most logical to me.
- WJW 6y agoIf user security is more important than revenue, turn SMT on. If revenue is more important than user security, turn it off. It's easy to predict which option will be chosen by the big cloud providers, all of which are are very large public companies with a history of optimizing for cost savings over customer service. On the plus side, there might be a gap in the market if you can brand yourself as the secure alternative to the subset of customers who really cares about it even if they have to pay double.
- ksec 6y agoWell on x86 CPU anyway. ( Although the context of the patch is specifically x86 ) on Graviton 2 each vCPU is actually a CPU core.