Intel microcode update

[Alan Cox]

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:12:40 -0600
Frank Cox <theatre at sasktel.net> wrote:

> Eek and egad.  There is apparently some kind of a microcode bug in certain
> Intel CPU's. 
> 
> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40567
> 
> Any comments about how this will affect Linux systems?

Probably minimally. Intel have released plenty of processors with bugs
needing new microcode updates - and it is why the update facility is
there. Intel distribute firmware files to vendors and these get put into
both OS packages and BIOS updates so that the processor is loaded with
any what are effectively patches by one or the other

There are also various magical undocumented msr registers used to allow
certain features to be adjusted and this is also done in BIOS updates
some times.

So Intel designed this into the system, and Linux handles it fine. I
expect there will be a new microcode_ctl package update if anything is
needed for Linux.

Alan