3 ms·
According to 5s on Google, the x86 has always been microcoded. I guess the argument is that “machine language” is the public API of the CPU, and “assembly langu
by whartung 2y ago
According to 5s on Google, the x86 has always been microcoded. I guess the argument is that “machine language” is the public API of the CPU, and “assembly language” is the higher level script used to, mostly, directly create machine language.
Is Intel microcode able to be changed by anyone? I understand that even CPUs get field updates nowadays.
- chuckadams 2y agoMicrocode updates are encrypted, and only Intel has the key. There are exploits to extract the key, but otherwise you're pretty much locked out. I don't know a whole lot about microarchitecture, but from my understanding, it's not possible to modify microcode's actual uOps in software, it's the translation from assembly to microcode that's being patched in updates.