Intel Releases Updated Microcode For Meltdown and Spectre

rgMekanic

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Intel has announced that it has released production microcode updates to OEM manufacturers for Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, and Skylake platforms. Along with this announcement, Intel has finally given us a schedule and availability table for the microcode revisions that can be found here.

Nice to see they haven't just went quiet and hoped we forgot, I was actually asking yesterday if anyone had heard anything. It's nice to see that in their guidance paper that they plan on going back further than initally thought, though we will have to see if they make it out of "planning" or get pushed out by vendors. Also there are some CPU's that seem to be missing from the list. Keep checking your motherboard manufacturers sites for updates, you can find a list we compiled here.

Based on these efforts, we have now released production microcode updates to our OEM customers and partners for Kaby Lake- and Coffee Lake-based platforms, plus additional Skylake-based platforms. This represents our 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel® Core™ product lines as well as our latest Intel Core™ X-series processor family. It also includes our recently announced Intel Xeon Scalable and Intel Xeon D processors for data center systems.
 
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I thought Broadwell was cutoff, so those with 4000 series and below are SOL. :(
 
Intel is sticking to it's "optional security" stance right? The only thing that could be possibly worse than this whole mess is forcing the microcode and then making it irreversible.
 
Hmmm, we have a ton of M3 Cisco UCS blades at work. Those are mostly Ivy Bridge e5-26xx. Tons of those... the entire VM environment. But how vulnerable those really are running esxi is another question.
 
Something seems fishy here. For some reason (perhaps I'm blind) But I can't see Broadwell-E listed in the table.
It is on there as;
Broadwell Server E, EP, EP4S,EX - Intel® Xeon® Processor E5v4 Product Family
 
It is on there as;
Broadwell Server E, EP, EP4S,EX - Intel® Xeon® Processor E5v4 Product Family

Unfortunately my 6800k and Kyle's 6950x are not Xeons, I'm hoping that they are lumped in there, but something a bit more specific like there is for every other processor on there would be reassuring.
 
I updated my BIOS last week. Hopefully this takes care of it once and for all.
 
im getting
404 ERROR: REQUEST COULD NOT BE FOUND
from the link

Should be fixed now, the USB ports on my motherboard have been acting up for a while, and occasionally it likes to multi-type, must have put 2 URL's back to back when I ctrl-V'd
 
Isn't this just a Spectre patch? I thought you couldn't fix Meltdown with a microcode update (other than disabling predictive branching)?
 
Unfortunately my 6800k and Kyle's 6950x are not Xeons, I'm hoping that they are lumped in there, but something a bit more specific like there is for every other processor on there would be reassuring.

Same for my 3930k.

It looks like they've omitted all of the "-E" parts, or included them with the Xeons. I hope the latter is true.
 
So my 5820k is high and dry?

Looks like my trip back to Intel was a short one.
 
If I have been reading this correctly, a lot of us might be high and dry, if your running windows to get the Microcode update it is up to the Motherboard manufactures to release a bios update with the microcode, last I looked for Asus they where only updating back to the 6th gen CPUs https://www.asus.com/News/V5urzYAT6myCC1o2 .

So Intel might make an update all the way back to the Core2 days but if the motherboard manufactures don't update a bios windows users are SOL, Linux users I guess can insert the microcode update without bios support.
 
I've been checking with ASRock periodically and they put out a bulletin a while back saying they weren't going to publish any more BIOS updates with the new microcode until the reboot bug is fixed. The only boards they've released updates for since that bulletin were lower end mATX and what appears to be embedded systems boards.
 
Same for my 3930k.

It looks like they've omitted all of the "-E" parts, or included them with the Xeons. I hope the latter is true.
They are effectively Xeons anyway, so hopefully you're right and my 5820K gets an update otherwise I might just switch to Ryzen+ if it's good enough.
 
How long are most mobo OEM's taking to provide BIOS updates?

Do these microcode updates necessarily HAVE to be included in a BIOS update?

Can't the operating system inject Microcode at boot? At least I believe Linux can do this. It wouldn't be a stretch to think Windows can do this too.

The reason I ask is, my motherboard was launched in mid to late 2011. I don't know how reasonable it is to expect that they would update the BIOS on it almost seven years later...
 
Do these microcode updates necessarily HAVE to be included in a BIOS update?

Can't the operating system inject Microcode at boot? At least I believe Linux can do this. It wouldn't be a stretch to think Windows can do this too.

The reason I ask is, my motherboard was launched in mid to late 2011. I don't know how reasonable it is to expect that they would update the BIOS on it almost seven years later...
Linux-based OSs do load the microcode at boot without any user intervention required. I don't know why this is not done on Windows.
 
so no 4790k fix in future ????
that cpu was very popular , would seem like they'd cover it .................

noticed several haswell variants , but not k version ...........

disappointed .......
 
My dad had me watch the 60s show when I was a kid and I thought it was silly,but not getting to alpha centauri due to cancellation was a bummer.

The Robinsons: lost in space was fun but didn't feel like lost is space.... Also no alpha centauri...

FFS can they just get there already.....

Netflix better not bungle this
 
Asrock hasn't touched my x99 for a long while... But since it was a new board when I got it and it wasn't too long ago I could just argue an RMA?

Still under a year.
 
Hmmm, we have a ton of M3 Cisco UCS blades at work. Those are mostly Ivy Bridge e5-26xx. Tons of those... the entire VM environment. But how vulnerable those really are running esxi is another question.
I think e5-26xx is sandy
E5-26xx v2 is ivy
E5-26xx v3 is haswell, v4=broadwell, v5=sky, v6=kaby...
 
I'm sure that Intel won't do anything for me, Xeon X5672 - Westmere-EP.

That's fine, why should they? It's an old platform, X58. They won't give a damn.
 
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So will this slowdown the computer? I know they said gaming won't be affected, but we have seen it be affected. But for high cpu/IO tasks and such as well?
 
I updated my BIOS last week. Hopefully this takes care of it once and for all.

The once and for all fix will be the units that they start to sell in the future... which will probably then be found to have even worse issues.
 
The PDF says beta = Intel has released this production signed MCU under NDA for all customers to validate

Edit: Too slow
 
It means our patch is in beta like it says. The whole point of this article is we now have a status update.

Cool! I'm a patient man.#

Last BIOS update for my board was December 2017 so there might be hope.
 
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