I’d argue it’s somewhat upsetting. I keep a Q6600 under my electronics bench because it has a parallel port. I’d like to also keep it on the network but it seems like that may be a bad idea going forward. In principle I don’t like intel just getting away with this without doing their due dilligence.
Did you read the article? They tried, and they found limits to what can be accomplished with the older chips. Is that not due diligence?
Also, Spectre and Meltdown are, AFAIK, local-only attacks. as long as you don't run untrusted code (including JavaScript), then an unpatched machine should be fine.
What I read was "We decided this was good enough and people won't mind the over promising. It helped save face at the time so we've already extract the most value from it we would. Here is the last note that an engineer wrote down before we told him to stop working on it".
How well do those work in practice? USB-Serial adapters have a lognstanding reputation of being awful if you need to do anything beyond the most basic spraying of data back and forth.
If you had experience with parallel you would know that the drivers require DMA to the parallel port and have tight timings. USB adapters don't work for most any application and the host OS needs to be windows 7 or earlier.
Serial is not parallel. It isn't hard to look something up but I'd like you to go ahead and try to use a parallel printer or flash a gameshark through a setup newer than a windows 7 host OS on a native parallel port and a windows 98 VM. Protip: you can't.
If you don't mind spending a little money, the Dell e-Series port replicators have a parallel port and you can use them on fairly affordable used Latitude notebooks including the e6x20 Sandy Bridge series and the e6x30 Ivy Bridge ones (where x = 2, 3, 4, or 5 to denote 12.5 inch to 15 inch screens) or comparable generation Precision laptops. Haswell laptops will work on those port replicators will work too. Those can be had as second hand or refurb systems starting at ~100 and going up to about ~300. Something like that or a comparable retired business laptop from another brand with a docking station (not sure if HP or Lenovo's port replicators are as universal across generations of laptops, but maybe someone more familiar with other brands could offer some insight) may do the job too.
We all have fond memories of the Q6600, but it's over a decade old. That CPU was probably the biggest bargain ever offered to PC builders. I think I kept mine through three different GPU upgrades. Can't complain that it's hit the end of its long life.
On the desktop side at least the split for Nehalem/Westmere appears to be LGA1156 yes, LGA1366 no. It's arbitrary but not much more than if they'd done all Westmre's and no Nehalems.
The mobile side is not quite packaging aligned. All of the non-patched chips use socket G1, all of the patched ones are BGA1288. The interesting bit is the I7-620M/640M were available in both BGA1288 and G1 versions. I'm really curious of both variants of those got patched or just the BGA1288 ones.
It's an odd mix. The W3000 series didn't make the cut, but the Nehalem-ES/EX did, so the various E/W/L/X 5000 series Xeons did get microcode. Be sure to check the Intel document linked at the bottom of the article if you need more details.
Meltdown is a hardware vulnerability and is fixed at the OS level. For existing hardware there's nothing I can think of that Intel could have or should have done differently.
So when and how can we expect these patches? Are they going to come with a Windows update, or do they have to be downloaded through Intel or the OEM? It'd be nice if Anandtech makes a user-friendly article on how to protect, and check whether you're protected, against these threats.
Yona was the "Core Duo". (Mobile version released just before the Core 2 Duo, which was the desktop variant (although updated to 64 bit). There even was "Core Solo". But, yeah, it is damn confusing.
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menthol1979 - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Ah, farewell my beloved Q9650 :)solnyshok - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
I still have 2 kids' PCs running Q9650 o.c. to 4.2GHz with 8GB RAM and ssds, gtx960, win 10. I am going to keeps those around for another 1-2 yearswillis936 - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
I’d argue it’s somewhat upsetting. I keep a Q6600 under my electronics bench because it has a parallel port. I’d like to also keep it on the network but it seems like that may be a bad idea going forward. In principle I don’t like intel just getting away with this without doing their due dilligence.Elstar - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Did you read the article? They tried, and they found limits to what can be accomplished with the older chips. Is that not due diligence?Also, Spectre and Meltdown are, AFAIK, local-only attacks. as long as you don't run untrusted code (including JavaScript), then an unpatched machine should be fine.
willis936 - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
What I read was "We decided this was good enough and people won't mind the over promising. It helped save face at the time so we've already extract the most value from it we would. Here is the last note that an engineer wrote down before we told him to stop working on it".The_Assimilator - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Because it's not possible to buy a USB-to-parallel-port adapter, or a PCIe card with a parallel port, that can be plugged into any computer.DanNeely - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
How well do those work in practice? USB-Serial adapters have a lognstanding reputation of being awful if you need to do anything beyond the most basic spraying of data back and forth.willis936 - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
If you had experience with parallel you would know that the drivers require DMA to the parallel port and have tight timings. USB adapters don't work for most any application and the host OS needs to be windows 7 or earlier.chipped - Thursday, April 5, 2018 - link
You can get USB serial adaptor that support Windows 10 and also DMA. Seriously guys, in this day and age it’s not so hard to look something up...willis936 - Thursday, April 5, 2018 - link
Serial is not parallel. It isn't hard to look something up but I'd like you to go ahead and try to use a parallel printer or flash a gameshark through a setup newer than a windows 7 host OS on a native parallel port and a windows 98 VM. Protip: you can't.PeachNCream - Thursday, April 5, 2018 - link
If you don't mind spending a little money, the Dell e-Series port replicators have a parallel port and you can use them on fairly affordable used Latitude notebooks including the e6x20 Sandy Bridge series and the e6x30 Ivy Bridge ones (where x = 2, 3, 4, or 5 to denote 12.5 inch to 15 inch screens) or comparable generation Precision laptops. Haswell laptops will work on those port replicators will work too. Those can be had as second hand or refurb systems starting at ~100 and going up to about ~300. Something like that or a comparable retired business laptop from another brand with a docking station (not sure if HP or Lenovo's port replicators are as universal across generations of laptops, but maybe someone more familiar with other brands could offer some insight) may do the job too.gerz1219 - Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - link
We all have fond memories of the Q6600, but it's over a decade old. That CPU was probably the biggest bargain ever offered to PC builders. I think I kept mine through three different GPU upgrades. Can't complain that it's hit the end of its long life.nathanddrews - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
RIP in peace, Q6600.So why does Lynnfield get the update, but not Bloomfield? Northbridge?
DanNeely - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
On the desktop side at least the split for Nehalem/Westmere appears to be LGA1156 yes, LGA1366 no. It's arbitrary but not much more than if they'd done all Westmre's and no Nehalems.The mobile side is not quite packaging aligned. All of the non-patched chips use socket G1, all of the patched ones are BGA1288. The interesting bit is the I7-620M/640M were available in both BGA1288 and G1 versions. I'm really curious of both variants of those got patched or just the BGA1288 ones.
Samus - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Sucks for Socket 1366 Xeon owners. Lots of servers and workstations out there still running these...A5 - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Any professional environment still running Westmere Xeons probably wasn't going to apply the patch even if it came out.Samus - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
So this means the Westmere and Nahalem-based Xeon's are not getting microcode updates?Samus - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Like the X5650 and E5450?Samus - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Opps those are Core2 based, I meant W35xx series. They are Bloomfields but still Nehalem architecture based on the Core i7-9xx parts.Ryan Smith - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
It's an odd mix. The W3000 series didn't make the cut, but the Nehalem-ES/EX did, so the various E/W/L/X 5000 series Xeons did get microcode. Be sure to check the Intel document linked at the bottom of the article if you need more details.Yaldabaoth - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Core i7-920. [Sigh] I am not surprised, but....wow&wow - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
"Overall this is an unsatisfying (but not upsetting) end to Intel’s microcode update program."Not really, still "Meltdown" inside and OS kernel relocation still needed!!!
"Mad March Meltdown! Microsoft's patch for a patch for a patch may need another patch"
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - link
Meltdown is a hardware vulnerability and is fixed at the OS level. For existing hardware there's nothing I can think of that Intel could have or should have done differently.yhselp - Thursday, April 5, 2018 - link
So when and how can we expect these patches? Are they going to come with a Windows update, or do they have to be downloaded through Intel or the OEM? It'd be nice if Anandtech makes a user-friendly article on how to protect, and check whether you're protected, against these threats.Comdrpopnfresh - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
Thought "1st gen core" would have been Yonah.Magnus101 - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
Yona was the "Core Duo". (Mobile version released just before the Core 2 Duo, which was the desktop variant (although updated to 64 bit). There even was "Core Solo".But, yeah, it is damn confusing.
clkwork - Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - link
What do you mean they aren't updating my Pentium Pro???