Certain computer tasks could be up to 50% slower because of a fix for a security flaw discovered in Intel microprocessors.
A design flaw has been discovered in Intel chips that will require major changes to be made to the Windows and Linux kernels. While patches are being worked on -- and in the case of Windows Insiders, have already rolled out -- users of both operating systems can expect to experience something of a performance hit. macOS machines running on Intel chips are also affected.
Intel is -- for the moment -- remaining tight-lipped about the specifics of the flaw that has been unearthed, but it is believed to affect processors produced in the past decade. Developers are currently estimating that systems could experience slow downs of between 5 and 30 percent.
The flaw is in the Intel x86-64 hardware, and it appears a microcode update can't address it. It has to be fixed in software at the OS level, or go buy a new processor without the design blunder.
Companies which offer large cloud-computing products such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft may be heavily affected. Amazon and Google were not immediately able to offer comment.
Microsoft's Azure cloud – which runs a lot of Linux as well as Windows – will undergo maintenance and reboots on January 10, presumably to roll out the above fixes.
Amazon Web Services also warned customers via email to expect a major security update to land on Friday this week, without going into details.
Computers face global slowdown due to flaw in Intel chips
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A design flaw has been discovered in Intel chips that will require major changes to be made to the Windows and Linux kernels. While patches are being worked on -- and in the case of Windows Insiders, have already rolled out -- users of both operating systems can expect to experience something of a performance hit. macOS machines running on Intel chips are also affected.
Intel is -- for the moment -- remaining tight-lipped about the specifics of the flaw that has been unearthed, but it is believed to affect processors produced in the past decade. Developers are currently estimating that systems could experience slow downs of between 5 and 30 percent.
The flaw is in the Intel x86-64 hardware, and it appears a microcode update can't address it. It has to be fixed in software at the OS level, or go buy a new processor without the design blunder.
Companies which offer large cloud-computing products such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft may be heavily affected. Amazon and Google were not immediately able to offer comment.
Microsoft's Azure cloud – which runs a lot of Linux as well as Windows – will undergo maintenance and reboots on January 10, presumably to roll out the above fixes.
Amazon Web Services also warned customers via email to expect a major security update to land on Friday this week, without going into details.
Computers face global slowdown due to flaw in Intel chips
Intel chips have a huge security flaw, and the fix will slow down Windows and Linux machines
'Kernel memory leaking' Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign
AMD shares surge on report of an Intel chip security flaw