News: 0001533418

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Linux 6.15 Set To Include Better Handling For Intel P Or E Core Only Mitigations

([Intel] 4 Hours Ago Intel P / E Core Mitigations)


A set of patches from Intel for utilizing the CPU type for CPU matching as part of the x86 mitigation handling is likely to be part of the upcoming Linux 6.15 kernel. These patches are intended for helping with CPU security mitigations on Intel Core hybrid processors where there are security vulnerabilities affecting only P cores or only E cores but not both sets of CPU cores present in the system.

For a number of months Intel engineers have been working to [1]properly handle the CPU hybrid topology for determining vulnerabilities/mitigations rather than blanket applying mitigations (or not) across both sets of CPU cores even if only the P or E cores are vulnerable.

Intel's motivation for this is initially around the Register File Data Sampling (RFDS) vulnerability where only the E cores on Alder Lake and Raptor Lake are susceptible to the issue. The P cores are not and thus the patch series will properly handle this case of applying to the specific CPU type that's vulnerable. So now with Linux 6.15+ the P cores on Raptor Lake and Alder Lake CPUs would be properly [2]excluded . The patches add in the proper infrastructure and then this RFDS handling is the only use case for the moment.

These patches were queued up into [3]tip/tip.git's x86/cpu branch ahead of the Linux 6.15 merge window opening later in March. With the patches part of the x86/cpu TIP branch, they are expected to be submitted and merged for Linux 6.15 barring any last minute issues or objections from being raised.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Hybrid-Topology-Mitigate

[2] https://web.git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip.git/commit/?h=x86/cpu&id=8c7768105a84c16b9d71af2fa2d2c50ff3c80f4e

[3] https://web.git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip.git/log/?h=x86/cpu



phoronix

`Lasu' Releases SAG 0.3 -- Freeware Book Takes Paves For New World Order
by staff writers

...
The SAG is one of the major products developed via the Information
Superhighway, the brain child of Al Gore, US Vice President. The ISHW
is being developed with massive government funding, since studies show
that it already has more than four hundred users, three years before
the first prototypes are ready. Asked whether he was worried about the
foreign influence in an expensive American Dream, the vice president
said, ``Finland? Oh, we've already bought them, but we haven't told
anyone yet. They're great at building model airplanes as well. And _I
can spell potato.'' House representatives are not mollified, however,
wanting to see the terms of the deal first, fearing another Alaska.
Rumors about the SAG release have imbalanced the American stock
market for weeks. Several major publishing houses reached an all time
low in the New York Stock Exchange, while publicly competing for the
publishing agreement with Mr. Wirzenius. The negotiations did not work
out, tough. ``Not enough dough,'' says the author, although spokesmen
at both Prentice-Hall and Playboy, Inc., claim the author was incapable
of expressing his wishes in a coherent form during face to face talks,
preferring to communicate via e-mail. ``He kept muttering something
about jiffies and pegs,'' they say.
...
-- Lars Wirzenius <wirzeniu@cs.helsinki.fi>
[comp.os.linux.announce]