Question Intel processors with no spectre vulnerability

[wpshooter]

Are both generation 8 and 9 Intel processor NOT vulnerable to the spectre flaw(s) ?

Thanks.

 

[LTC8K6]

Only the 9th gen have some protection.

If you get any processor without HT, that lessens the vulnerability.

But the flaws are really not security problems for home users to worry about.

 

[wpshooter]

Any idea as to when processors will be available which are designed to not have this vulnerability ? Thanks.

 

[mikeymikec]

Are both generation 8 and 9 Intel processor NOT vulnerable to the spectre flaw ?

It's a mistake to refer to it as "the Spectre flaw". There's a load of variations on the original flaw that have been found.

 

[LTC8K6]

Any idea as to when processors will be available which are designed to not have this vulnerability ? Thanks.

Ryzen has very low vulnerability right now. No reason not to go with Ryzen.

I do not see any "totally non-vulnerable" CPUs on the horizon.

 

[naukkis]

Major flaw in Intel processor that affect consumer grade cpus is only one specific part of Spectre, called Meltdown. Meltdown vulnerable cpu's are that avoidable ones, support to them isn't guaranteed as they are fundamentally broken. 8th gen is still Meltdown-vulnerable, 9th gen, at least 9600, 9700 and 9900 are fixed.

 

[LTC8K6]

Major flaw in Intel processor that affect consumer grade cpus is only one specific part of Spectre, called Meltdown. Meltdown vulnerable cpu's are that avoidable ones, support to them isn't guaranteed as they are fundamentally broken. 8th gen is still Meltdown-vulnerable, 9th gen, at least 9600, 9700 and 9900 are fixed.

That's a lot of FUD there, imo.

https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm

Inspectre says my Haswell chips are no longer vulnerable and still have good performance.

 

[naukkis]

That's a lot of FUD there, imo.

https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm

Inspectre says my Haswell chips are no longer vulnerable and still have good performance.

They are software-fixed. Software fix is available as long as os-vendors do care about broken Intel cpus.

The flaw is called Meltdown because all hardware-based data separations are flawed, cpu's hardware security is melt away.

 

[LTC8K6]

Just checked my Ivy Bridge chip. i5-3330.

It's also no longer vulnerable, but performance is slower.

A month ago it was still Spectre vulnerable, so it has since been patched.

 

[LTC8K6]

They are software-fixed. Software fix is available as long as os-vendors do care about broken Intel cpus.

The flaw is called Meltdown because all hardware-based data separations are flawed, cpu's hardware security is melt away.

The CPUs are not vulnerable any more.

You are just repeating "broken" because you have a grudge against Intel.

It won't help your case any, imo.

The CPUs are not broken now, and they never were.

People found exploits in Intel and AMD processors. Neither one is broken.

 

[naukkis]

The CPUs are not vulnerable any more.

You are just repeating "broken" because you have a grudge against Intel.

It won't help your case any, imo.

The CPUs are not broken now, and they never were.

People found exploits in Intel and AMD processors. Neither one is broken.

Hardware is broken. OS has to be redesigned for Meltdown-cpu's to separate kernel memory from user memory with slower software-based workaround. There's so much Meltdown-hardware out there that fixes probably last pretty long but for buying new hardware it's better to buy stuff that do not need work-arounds. What is probably what original poster tried to ask.

 

[LTC8K6]

Normal consumer users don't really need the workarounds, though.

Inspectre allows you to disable them if you want.

You can find instructions for disabling them all over the place.

How important can they be if disabling them is popular?

 

[Jimzz]

Ryzen has very low vulnerability right now. No reason not to go with Ryzen.

I do not see any "totally non-vulnerable" CPUs on the horizon.

I think Zen2 will be pretty close to non-vulnerable. Unless something has changed they will have hardware mitigation's to the Spectre.
Of course with SMT still being used they may find more "flaws" that need work later. But for now seems ZEN2 should be the safest bet with little lose to performance.

 

[VirtualLarry]

and they never were.

err, not quite sure I agree with that. Seems just a bit too much of an Intel fan-comment, let's put it that way. They were and are a serious flaw in Intel's hardware design.

Ever heard the term: "Unsafe at any speed". I think Ralf Nader coined that one.

Well, Intel's CPUs for the last tens years, turned out to be computationally, "Unsafe at any speed".

 

[Markfw]

The CPUs are not vulnerable any more.

You are just repeating "broken" because you have a grudge against Intel.

It won't help your case any, imo.

The CPUs are not broken now, and they never were.

People found exploits in Intel and AMD processors. Neither one is broken.

Neither one is broken, but Intel does have a lot of hardware flaws, way more than AMD, and way more vulnerabilities.

Software fixed some, but it slowed them down, and in the case of SSD's they slowed down a lot.

 

[mikeymikec]

Normal consumer users don't really need the workarounds, though.

Citation on this one?

 

[LTC8K6]

Citation on this one?

It was discussed a lot in the threads about the vulnerabilities.

 

[scannall]

Citation on this one?

Some people don't care. I on the other hand do. I wouldn't want a part with a known design flaw. Others don't mind. To avoid Spectre, your best bet is probably a chip with no HT/SMT. No side channel to attack. As far as the Intel only Meltdown, I'm not up to date enough to know if this has been addressed in Intel's 9 series chips yet.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It was discussed a lot in the threads about the vulnerabilities.

It's my understanding, that they can be exploited via JavaScript, in your browser. That doesn't make me feel too certain that home users are somehow "unaffected".

Granted, cloud providers have it the worst, and if I were them, I would get off of vulnerable hardware ASAP. (Move to Rome.)

 

[LTC8K6]

If your system is not patched, or not patch-able, then yes, it's logical to worry.

But most modern systems should be patched by now.

 

[DrMrLordX]

From what I recall, the "most secure" Intel CPUs against Meltdown and Spectre are Cascade Lake-S and Cascade Lake-AP. Fancy running one of those on your desktop?

Everything else requires more-extensive OS/software/microcode patching (with contingent performance tradeoffs) to protect against such problems.

And yes, running without SMT offers a lot of protection against Spectre.

 

[naukkis]

From what I recall, the "most secure" Intel CPUs against Meltdown and Spectre are Cascade Lake-S and Cascade Lake-AP. Fancy running one of those on your desktop?

Everything else requires more-extensive OS/software/microcode patching (with contingent performance tradeoffs) to protect against such problems.

And yes, running without SMT offers a lot of protection against Spectre.

Coffeelake-r, 9600,9700 and 9900 have exactly same modifications as Cascade-Lakes.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Coffeelake-r, 9600,9700 and 9900 have exactly same modifications as Cascade-Lakes.

Hmm, okay. It must be the Skylake-X refresh CPUs that don't have similar updates.

 

[tynopik]

nvm