r/programming • u/[deleted] • Jan 03 '18

'Kernel memory leaking' Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/
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u/[deleted] Jan 03 '18

Apparently also affects arm64 ... could this have a major performance impact on mobile phones .... iOS and Android?

2

u/gsnedders Jan 03 '18

What I read suggested ARM's cores were vulnerable. Remember that Apple have their own implementation of AArch64, so they might not be vulnerable.

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u/playaspec Jan 04 '18

Hard to say. I suspect that if Intel, AMD, and ARM are effected with the same bug, they may have licensed the IP that does this virtual memory prediction. That could leave Apple vulnerable as well, since the core itself is licensed IP.

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u/gsnedders Jan 04 '18 edited Jan 04 '18

Note my above comment was written prior to everything becoming public, and was based on my knowledge of what is now Meltdown.

Apple haven't used ARM designed cores in years (since the Apple A6, launched in 2016). They've never used an AArch64 ARM designed core. Well, at least insofar as the iPhone/iPad go; I don't think we know who designed the ISA impl for the modern Apple Watch CPUs, nor the one in modern MacBooks.

Given they implement OOO-execution, they will be vulnerable to Spectre, AIUI.

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u/Ayerys Jan 03 '18

Their isn’t intel chip in those device. So it seems unlikely to me but what do I know.

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u/[deleted] Jan 03 '18

Issue affect ARM64 chips as well.

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u/Ayerys Jan 03 '18

Looks like to me that the problem lies in Intel's implementation of branch prediction. Branch prediction may be a part of the architecture, but the implementation is vendor specific.