From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1PetvZ-0001RA-6P for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:35:42 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 64530E09C0; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:34:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mailout-de.gmx.net (mailout-de.gmx.net [213.165.64.23]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id DB0F9E09C0 for ; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:34:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail invoked by alias); 17 Jan 2011 18:34:07 -0000 Received: from p54851BA3.dip0.t-ipconnect.de (EHLO gmx.net) [84.133.27.163] by mail.gmx.net (mp023) with SMTP; 17 Jan 2011 19:34:07 +0100 X-Authenticated: #20088476 X-Provags-ID: V01U2FsdGVkX19WFExeSqNWgDT/IAiRiAW7bvPrG+1vCDeTqb52iM LDBcWXVanFKSjn Received: by gmx.net (nbSMTP-1.00) for uid 1001 Meino.Cramer@gmx.de; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:34:09 +0100 (CET) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:34:08 +0100 From: meino.cramer@gmx.de To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Microcode update AMD Message-ID: <20110117183408.GG5748@solfire> References: <20110117172148.GD5748@solfire> <324412.67436.qm@web39307.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <324412.67436.qm@web39307.mail.mud.yahoo.com> User-Agent: mutt-ng/devel-r804 (Linux) X-Y-GMX-Trusted: 0 X-Archives-Salt: 48bc6b6d-21e8-4b6a-8836-1f027600b402 X-Archives-Hash: b8152500d94003e875c8a1b19555ef80 BRM [11-01-17 19:16]: > ----- Original Message ---- > > > I have two questions: > > > > 1) Do I have to enable microcode updates in the BIOS of my Crosshair > > IV Formula to activate microcodes push in the CPU by the module > > "microcode" ? (AMD Phenom X6 1090T) > > Not sure about BIOS, but the Linux Kernel you are running will certainly need > support enabled too. > > > 2) Does anyone know, what these microcodes do? They are fixes for... > > ...what? > > The Intel and AMD processors are more abstract than physical now. With i486 and > earlier the processors were typically hard wired; hardware "bug" fixes could not > be pushed out. > Intel's Pentium (and I don't know which AMD) started using micro-code to program > the processor. This enabled them to push out "hardware" bug fixes for the > processors. > > So what happens is the x86 instruction (e.g. mov ax, bx) gets translated to > micro-code first, then it gets processed, and the result translated back to the > expected instruction result - essentially, emulating the x86 instruction set in > the processor. That's the simple version. > > So now when they discover a bug in the hardware they can push out a micro-code > update to either fix the "hardware" (microcode) bug or work around a hardware > (physical hardware) bug. > > Ben > > Hi Ben, thanks for your explanation... I meant: What is fixed the uc-patches? Does "mov" only except "17" as argument...or... I searched AMD for a changelog or something like but I ound nothing... Best regards, mcc