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 1PetZ4-0007CG-W1 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:12:27 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 87594E0979; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:11:00 +0000 (UTC) Received: from web39307.mail.mud.yahoo.com (web39307.mail.mud.yahoo.com [66.94.238.174]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 4A5FDE0977 for ; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:10:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 69541 invoked by uid 60001); 17 Jan 2011 18:10:59 -0000 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=yahoo.com; s=s1024; t=1295287859; bh=hh4LsxnvOMzyJUKuVt6e1pj0eoQZk1HmMqnSs1YMae0=; h=Message-ID:X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:References:Date:From:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=pzjUReXpDCYxrUXVV6GoyRmuRNQyKrqKVED5LSgeX+QPiT0BINj6aJsLAz5vy5rvghYzbGhaAabmoZp+l5BjGqEUIZmRrnByZkip4AwLiMvICFAEYEcN0O6XUn6CZKDvxH4kfoW0dQ+AjaZVa1+0ZkzHABaq3A4yF2jd1Jf/kro= DomainKey-Signature:a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:References:Date:From:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=xMzd+RHR+NvmL5gt3F8lf4cM2KRZU4xYKHRt/8D+y4iLjM6+i5heAr92u7zf89xsg1DhdH+Nlcmsy4xZyHAoamUa2NUWOsXYvti+MsfKTEy7uk614KYMbbGq/ji/zdltXG6tkkbdjfMWgQh7tp4FsqftKYOSrhCyfAMdOs0iaJ8=; Message-ID: <324412.67436.qm@web39307.mail.mud.yahoo.com> X-YMail-OSG: nYxgI0kVM1nR9.U_wnRHvxFyUxdOymZw.w9pLnYNetawEB5 IA7MDwCkmWOQLQ_2xVb2._ZAu_KZwTiNsp53SErVHsQdliFadMe_UYYAxboP ysj4MlDE3qxSfufAwiBkYxBHazSSynoXRXjRpzaG9SmPH6Zm67KYCqxer3Lt WUeSNeisTbaxFp6cUzV58CwvmZLV89zRrgIwRIJW_BR2tg5lPVMx45BKj7ms CrUju8LFAhX7QxYNcrNVzkUz9.yB4izmluKP52JY6Vj0X1ZCkgv3GHv8YkXB KYSDv2wMoXid28QtC0lSeXcjKZ0Ii7gBPOkkyrkOpoW70Qe5uKE2ryUPGyPK F2VOpwu7uglSbugjM_ckGBz3a29TU0hTp7iOZd3a8mUFpmFSH5hdil1Um32o EnQuOJqMXT1w- Received: from [12.52.185.66] by web39307.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:10:59 PST X-Mailer: YahooMailRC/555 YahooMailWebService/0.8.107.285259 References: <20110117172148.GD5748@solfire> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:10:59 -0800 (PST) From: BRM Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Microcode update AMD To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <20110117172148.GD5748@solfire> 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 X-Archives-Salt: 127ed96e-3de3-4d95-a50e-b60a022c8b56 X-Archives-Hash: 4d9518ad609e23796055622829776d22 ----- 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