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>Software developers who wish to continue working with TSX will have to avoid updating their systems to newer firmware revisions—and in doing so, they'll retain
by voidlogic 12y ago
>Software developers who wish to continue working with TSX will have to avoid updating their systems to newer firmware revisions—and in doing so, they'll retain the risk of TSX-related memory corruption or crashes.
Say I bought a TSX enabled CPU specifically for that feature, I wonder if Intel will give me my money back... (they can have their broken CPU of course too)
- gambiting 12y agoTheoretically, yes - I almost returned my laptop with an i7 2630QM CPU, which should, as indicated on Intel's website, support AES instructions. But the specific BIOS of that laptop has them disabled and there was no way to re-enable them. So I contacted the manufacturer, and after a few emails they agreed that yes, I can return the product as "not as described" but they said that a new BIOS is also in the works for that laptop and if I am patient it will be made available soon - and it was, AES instructions were enabled after a patch issued 2 months later.
- raverbashing 12y agoThe real question is why does this depend on the BIOS
- tedunangst 12y agoPresumably so OEMs can sell higher clocked systems without other new features.
- mschuster91 12y agoIn case of AES I guess US crypto export regulations running amok...
- wmf 12y agoBut all BIOSes and motherboards are made in China.
- mschuster91 12y agoIf the guys on the label are American, then US regulations apply, too. Even if not, the US stick their nose anywhere, even where it does not belong...
- webkike 12y agoWhat do you mean? The BIOS is a configuration tool - it's entire purpose is to allow you to configure the CPU. It's not that the instructions depended on the BIOS, but that they couldn't be enabled with it. If you have a switch set to off glued in the off position, you can't turn it on until it's unglued
- casualobserver 12y agoI fell victim to the 2630QM AES bit disabled back in 2011 too. Though, ASUS emailed me a new bios image within 12 hours of reporting the issue.
- tacticus 12y agoWhy would anyone even disable that ever o.O
- JoshTriplett 12y agoExport compliance.
- andrewbells 12y agoLong time ago I bought a ThinkPad laptop with a preinstalled Linux distribution that didn't fully support the hardware installed. I should have contacted the seller about it too.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- na85 12y agoThat was unwarranted.
- valarauca1 12y agoSlightly warranted. Intel likes to have a good reason when you return their CPU's. The old pentium line you had to submit some form of proof that errors in floating point calculations would actually cause issues in your use of the computer (since it wouldn't cause issues for most business).
- morcheeba 12y agoSorry, he sounded like a concern troll. Was spreading doubt without any proof.
- jamesaguilar 12y agoI wondered similarly, but I wondered on the scale of companies that buy hundreds of thousands of these chips. Does Intel give a discount?