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 1PeuOU-0004TO-I1 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:05:34 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8A740E09C4 for ; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:05:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-ey0-f181.google.com (mail-ey0-f181.google.com [209.85.215.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A001E092E for ; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:48:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: by eyh6 with SMTP id 6so3243733eyh.40 for ; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:48:37 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date :message-id:subject:from:to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=zPo2khZ7P4r8CRZWlerd7JmRbNGpTqvPXJvbRkOQqls=; b=HwL383A5Yboxhw6v2lS/EcRbpyBsE4WnDgwIKDC7vWegeXKiIM8X6pRmAsaGv/udrP 29EF/X0iOYDxBekoPkfvjfWfez1ueunc6RfNBRCi2bH9zvxarnp/zTMdaQbMw7OIc2mB IGFqXYa/q99oeY5R4wYiL0EgzBbGluVcbDMg4= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=Zfyj01+SM4tkdN19n/FV7n5q5Mp907kdWQQ6FzU5ZofhkMrA7DZAk0rX2hHuuvzDv5 fcujeGT60HhO7xYtzZQi23QGcr9Nkyu1SfW61sh575bzlbEdJBktHLcGrbfJStTgTFRX agDqrO7I6700oNo7c6ahjGsDiW3QoIjz0ZqV0= 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 Received: by 10.227.69.201 with SMTP id a9mr4581294wbj.24.1295290116962; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:48:36 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.216.16.21 with HTTP; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:48:36 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <324412.67436.qm@web39307.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <20110117172148.GD5748@solfire> <324412.67436.qm@web39307.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:48:36 -0800 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Microcode update AMD From: Mark Knecht To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: db5a398e-ac2c-45d7-8209-f1dda4b5f278 X-Archives-Hash: 609949d927262f491aacc4802dd35a9e On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:10 AM, BRM wrote: > ----- Original Message ---- > >> I have two questions: >> >> =C2=A01) Do I have to enable microcode =C2=A0updates in the BIOS of my C= rosshair >> =C2=A0 =C2=A0 IV Formula to activate =C2=A0microcodes push in the CPU by= the module >> =C2=A0 =C2=A0 "microcode" ? (AMD =C2=A0Phenom X6 1090T) > > Not sure about BIOS, but the Linux Kernel you are running will certainly = need > support enabled too. > >> =C2=A02) Does anyone know, what these microcodes do? They are =C2=A0fixe= s for... >> =C2=A0 =C2=A0 ...what? > > The Intel and AMD processors are more abstract than physical now. With i4= 86 and > earlier the processors were typically hard wired; hardware "bug" fixes co= uld 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" =C2=A0(microcode) bug or work around = a hardware > (physical hardware) bug. > > Ben Ben, Do you know how security on these updates is handled? Seems to me this is an area rife for exploitation so I've been very hesitant to use them until I understood more. Cheers, Mark