Intel Making Improvements For CPU Microcode Updating Under Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Making Improvements For CPU Microcode Updating Under Linux

Intel engineers are working on enhancing the x86_64 CPU microcode updating experience under Linux and in particular the work is ultimately around better supporting of late microcode loading on Linux for Intel systems with a primary focus on Intel servers / enterprise users...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Better-ucode-Loading

[CochainComplex]

very interesting read.

[Sonadow]

Hardware changes, even microcode changes, should always be managed with proper downtime. Period.

If the business cannot afford to update the initrd with new microcode and schedule a reboot for it to take effect, that business has got its priorities completely fucked over.

[andyprough]

The change they should be making is opening up the source code of their microcode. And they should open the source code of their IME while they're at it.

[fitzie]

Hardware changes, even microcode changes, should always be managed with proper downtime. Period.

If the business cannot afford to update the initrd with new microcode and schedule a reboot for it to take effect, that business has got its priorities completely fucked over.

that would essentially force all the cloud providers into a live migration scenario, which is a lot of churn for a day zero type situation. I know that google is (or was) a big user of live vm migration, but not so sure about aws or azure.

Either way, cloud providers aren't able to schedule downtime with users, except via prearranged sla's, so if microcode can be deployed live, then that is the solution they will work towards.

[NotMine999]

The change they should be making is opening up the source code of their microcode. And they should open the source code of their IME while they're at it.

That will happen when Santa Claus is proven to be a real living being.