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Intel has released new CPU microcode for download

downloadcenter.intel.com

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Re: Intel has released new CPU microcode for download

#11
Intel, AMD and Via microcode is being archived by CPUID, by the user community: https://www.win-raid.com/t3355f47-Intel-AMD-amp-VIA-CPU-Micr...

"Collecting all available Production CPU microcodes is important for upgrading/downgrading purposes, for creating universal tools that can help people understand what microcode they use, for research on how the general technology works, for developers with no vendor representative who want to experiment on a given platform etc.

Disclaimer: All the microcodes below come only from official BIOS/UEFI updates, Intel Linux Microcode Updates, Linux Distributions, Windows Updates etc which were provided and made public by various manufacturers! It is always advised to request and/or wait for your OEM/OS to release newer fixes. The microcodes are gathered and provided with the sole purpose of helping people who are out of other viable solutions. Thus, they can be extremely helpful to those who have major problems with their systems for which their manufacturer refuses to assist due to indifference and/or system age."

Re: Intel has released new CPU microcode for download

#12

Anybody know how to make this work in OSX, for those of us who don't want to "upgrade" to the train wreck that is High Sierra?

Does High Sierra update the microcode of the CPU?

For Sierra, a patch is likely coming; there is "Security Update Developer Beta 2018-001" which you can get using their beta program.

Re: Intel has released new CPU microcode for download

#13
post #4

Is there any meaningful way to know what the differences are between previous microcodes?

Only what Intel provides, the updates are AFAIK encrypted.

And no reverse engineering possible?

I'm a bit surprised there is no enthusiast blog that tries to document intel microcode changes, but maybe I just haven't found it yet.

Re: Intel has released new CPU microcode for download

#14
Despite the name, this is not Linux-specific microcode. If you're running SmartOS or another illumos derivative, run ucodeadm(1) on the microcode.dat file (which will need to be renamed to have an "intel" prefix per the man page -- e.g., "intel-code.txt"). You can then run "ucodeadm -v" to validate that the new microcode has been loaded. (Note that this does not persist across a reboot, but we at Joyent are currently in the process of upstreaming the microcode into illumos, at which point it will.)

Re: Intel has released new CPU microcode for download

#15

FWIW, microcode is now included the patch that VMware released today. Gonna go test it out now... PSA: VMs have to be cold booted after patching and set to HW v11+ for PCID support EDIT: Just fired up my first Windows VM after patching ESXI and I'm now showing all green using the PowerShell script. Here's the link that I'm referring to: https://www.vmware.com/us/security/advisories/VMSA-2018-0004...

Yikes. So they refuse to vMotion to a host that's on the new microcode? I'm not even clear on how that would be supported -- it should Just Work if the host is in the cluster. Are hosts unable to rejoin a cluster after rebootign with this new microcode because they're effectively part of a different processor compatibility now? Does EVC affect how this impacts the ability to vMotion?

Re: Intel has released new CPU microcode for download

#16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only what Intel provides, the updates are AFAIK encrypted.

And no reverse engineering possible? I'm a bit surprised there is no enthusiast blog that tries to document intel microcode changes, but maybe I just haven't found it yet.

It's being reverse engineered as we speak. Great CCC talk from a couple of weeks ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY5kucyhKFc

Re: Intel has released new CPU microcode for download

#19
As someone living/fighting through the performance degradation that the kernel patches have done to IO loads at AWS, I'm wondering if their Xen patches have had this or may include it in the future.

Would really really rather that there were no more negative changes.

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