Intel Completes Spectre Fixes For Skylake, Kaby Lake, And Coffee Lake CPUs

It’s been another week, and Intel has another update on its buggy Spectre microcode patch for us. And it’s good news, because Intel has completed the fixed version of its patch for 6th-gen (Skylake, 100 series chipsets), 7th-gen (Kaby Lake, 200 series chipsets), and 8th-gen (Coffee Lake, 300 series chipsets) CPUs. This includes Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X (X299 chipset) CPUs, as well. Intel has updated its microcode update schedule accordingly. A previous version of this document leaked some details on two of the company’s next-generation Cannon Lake CPUs, which apparently also need microcode fixes for Spectre.

Intel’s Spectre microcode updates don’t go to consumers directly; they’re released to system and motherboard OEMs, who incorporate them into BIOS updates for their products. What Intel’s announcement means is that we should soon see OEMs releasing updates for products with those parts mentioned above.

This is just the latest development in an ongoing issue that began early this year with the reveal of the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. Intel’s initial fix for the issue, which was distributed en masse, was discovered to cause system instability on a wide number of CPUs. Intel has been busy creating a new version of the fix since.

The Meltdown/Spectre vulnerabilities are a major issue for the company because they affect almost all of its current and legacy products. The fallout from these revelations has included 32 lawsuits, so far. Intel has committed to fixing the vulnerabilities in hardware for its future CPUs.

  • 2mustangs
    Deleting my bookmarks to Tomshardware. The nearly screen size advertisements that continually pop up on every page I load are too much. Pisses me off that them constantly loading is using my limited data plan. No wired internet in my area worth a piss. I go somewhere else. Sucks because I have been watching this site several times per week for at least 10 years.
    Reply
  • Alerean
    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm?hl=en
    Reply
  • octavecode
    cryptocurrency adds tom? Really? What a shame......
    Reply
  • AgentLozen
    We're sad to lose you 2Mustangs. Remember to stop by if you're ever in the neighborhood.
    Reply
  • Kennyy Evony
    List some site alternatives to tomshardware so i can mark those instead. I'd gladly switch as well.
    Reply
  • jackt
    If you ask me, this spectre/meltdown thing is overrated (and everybody forgot about krack?much more dungerous). Afterall, what does it need to execude ? local access ? or from lan ? or from remote ?
    Reply
  • Jsimenhoff
    20727420 said:
    Deleting my bookmarks to Tomshardware. The nearly screen size advertisements that continually pop up on every page I load are too much. Pisses me off that them constantly loading is using my limited data plan. No wired internet in my area worth a piss. I go somewhere else. Sucks because I have been watching this site several times per week for at least 10 years.
    We're listening to your feedback. Please help make the site better. If you like you can e-mail us directly or post your issues with our ads in the Forum Feedback section. Our e-mail is community@tomshardware.com
    Reply
  • gregorio2
    Intel microcode-update-guidance.pdf at:
    https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/02/microcode-update-guidance.pdf
    What I see is most of Skylake are in production status, but mine's still Beta:
    Skylake Xeon E3, Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1200 v5 Product Family, 506E3, 36, Beta, 0xBA
    So Skylake is not fixed for some. My board has been issued new bios from Gigabyte,
    but according to above reference, it is in BETA not Production status.
    Reply