Intel needs to come clean about Meltdown and Spectre

Intel’s not had the best of times recently. Meltdown and Spectre security flaws have helped reveal fundamental issues with processor design over the past 20 years, and the software updates to protect PCs will have performance impacts. Even as I write this, it’s still not clear to anyone exactly how bad these performance impacts will be for older desktop systems, or how significant they’ll be to server-based cloud platforms. It’s all a bit of a mess, and Intel hasn’t helped with its lack of transparency. It’s time for Intel to stop hiding behind cleverly-worded statements.

Intel’s first response to the initial Meltdown and Spectre rumors was an angry blog post that provided few details, and claimed “performance impacts are...

Continue reading…



Continue reading...