indeed it literally was the author's suggestion to search for the word 'backdoor': >This code, to us, appears to involve the handling of memory error detection

indeed it literally was the author's suggestion to search for the word 'backdoor': >This code, to us, appears to involve the handling of memory error detection and correction rather than a "backdoor" in the security sense. The IOH SR 17 probably refers to scratchpad register 17 in the I/O hub, part of Intel's chipsets, that is used by firmware code. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24084977 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24084977