Re: [gentoo-user] Microcode updates for "old" Intel CPU's

[Mick]

On Wednesday, 10 January 2018 01:46:08 GMT Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 8:33 PM, Corbin Bird <corbinbird@×××××××.net> wrote:
> > On 01/09/2018 01:56 AM, Mick wrote:
> >
> > At this point, the only sure bet, is a non x86, x86_64, ARM, ARM64 CPU.
> >
> > Don't know enough to make a recommendation on a particular CPU arch at
> > this
> > point.
>
> Good luck with that...
>
> If you aren't hearing about Spectre fixes for a CPU it is most likely
> because it is so obscure that nobody has bothered to check whether it
> is vulnerable.
>
> Sure, there are some CPUs that have been tested and found to be ok.
> However, almost anything modern is vulnerable to spectre.  I just
> wasn't something that was on anybody's radar.  New CPUs are likely to
> be resistant to these types of attacks regardless of vendor.

Yes, but I would be surprised if new 'fixed' CPUs land anytime before 2019 ... 
if not 2020.  I'd rather not be running an old Intel i7 which has not had its 
microcode patched all the way until then - if the complimentary microcode 
patch is *also* improving security besides speed, after the consequential 
kernel patches.


> Sure, if I was about to place an order for 1000 CPUs tomorrow I'd
> probably pick AMD over Intel to avoid the PTI overhead, but that is
> about as far as I'd let these vulnerabilities affect purchase
> decisions.  There are lots of good reasons to go with ARM vs x86, but
> this isn't really one of them.  And outside of x86/ARM I think almost
> any other CPU choice is going to be a niche item.

I've seen Linus making statements back in 2016 of the year of the ARM laptop 
being upon us (Chromebook anyone?) and I've seen the 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 
835 ARM laptop by Asus featuring on CES 2018 with impressively long battery 
life, but I have no idea how it compares in performance terms with the equally 
vulnerable current x86 arch machines.  That may be a different discussion 
anyway.

Most vendors only sell Intel in their laptops.  I could build a desktop I 
guess, but Ryzen is also affected by Spectre.  With Intel's burning platform I 
want to jump off, but I'm not sure if spending money at this stage will 
materially improve my PC security ... or if it is wiser to wait for the next 
round of 'improved' CPUs.

Are any of you planning to replace your Intel PCs and what are you considering 
as a replacement at present?
-- 
Regards,
Mick