Meltdown / Spectre

[Grey Havoc]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/04/intel_amd_arm_cpu_vulnerability/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/04/intel_meltdown_spectre_bugs_the_registers_annotations/

 

[sublight_]

How many aerospace platforms have intel inside?

 

[sienar]

How many aerospace platforms have intel inside?

I'd be surprised if any are using x86 chips

 

[sublight_]

How many aerospace platforms have intel inside?

I'd be surprised if any are using x86 chips

Exactly, so this probably shouldn't be on the "aerospace" board.

 

[Dragon029]

[For when this thread is moved]

A good video from Computerphile on how Meltdown and Spectre works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5mRwzVvFGE

 

[NUSNA_Moebius]

I did a search on "x86 Processor Avionics", and they exist. But this is about ARM processors too.

But avionics are not really connected to the internet though I guess erroneous software could load itself onto a memory card that is later connected to avionics unbeknownst to the users. The business side and air traffic control are likely to be effected most, not the aircraft themselves.

I guess PowerPC/POWER and MIPS based avionics are safe

 

[galgot]

dunno what kind of PowerPCs are used in avionics, but some are affected as well.
http://tenfourfox.blogspot.fr/

 

[NUSNA_Moebius]

The PowerPC 750 (known to Apple users and laymen as the "G3") is sorta famous for it's space radiation hardened version: the BAE RAD750. The PPC750, and PPC7400 families are fairly common in avionics, and it's of course amazing how old these processor families really are. But you know how long aviation & space certifications can take......

I was reading on PowerPC vulnerability. The 750 and 7400 families' have different enough speculative execution schemes to make them probably unlikely to be targeted. Embedded applications (like avionics) are going to be the only places you'll find these processors. Not worth the trouble when there are bigger, meatier and more vulnerable targets.

 

[Colonial-Marine]

I'm not certain what lessons are to be learned from it all but what a mess this is. I wonder in regards to performance how many generations of CPUs this will set us back?

I'm not sure if most of the performance impact comes from the fix addressing Meltdown or Spectre but now I'm regretting not going with AMD for my last PC builds. Seems I should bite the bullet and go over to Windows 10 at last too.

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/07/23/1613217/academics-publish-new-software-level-protections-against-spectre-and-rowhammer-attacks

https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/07/chinese-government-likely-knew-about-spectre-and-meltdown-bugs-us/149658/