Critical update for Intel Core CPUs is outHave Intel processor? Download the fix right nowBy Theo Valich: Tuesday 26 June 2007, 07:26A COUPLE OF WEEKS ago, we heard that Dell was dealing with a certain situation considering Intel dual-core MCW and quad-core KC marchitecture, and that the company was releasing urgent BIOS and microcode versions for its line up.We learned that the affected CPUs are the Core 2 Duo E4000/E6000, Core 2 Quad Q6600, Core 2 Xtreme QX6800, QX6700 and QX6800.In the mobile world, people with the Core 2 Duo T5000 and T7000 need to visit Microsoft's site, while the server guys will want to use motherboard BIOSes if they do not rely on Microsoft Windows operating systems.The affected servers are Xeon 3000, 3200, 5100 and 5300s - or just about every model from the second generation of Core marchitecture.Oddly enough, Yonah - 32-bit Core Duo processor - isn't among the affected cores.We are assured that no product recall will happen, and that La Intella took all appropriate steps in order to minimise damage to its public image, because if a product recall happened, Intel's credibility would be ruined for good.
Intel explains the Core 2 CPU errataErrata known to developers, no cause for panicBy Theo Valich: Thursday 28 June 2007, 07:56AFTER WE PUBLISHED this story here, tje inbox went into overdrive and it all ended up with my personal Blackberry 8700g collapsing with memory errors.It probably did not expect over 600 e-mails in hours time, but that's life.To get back on the story, at first Intel posted the details about these particular errata back in late April inside a Core 2 Specification Update PDF document, explaing how this error could cause memory leaks and ultimatively, lead to crashes. This was caught in testing, and there were no reports from the open world. However, most motherboards of today are unstable enough that even if the TLB buffer errata was the cause of system crash, we seriously doubt it would be reported back to Intel.Most computer users have a "default guilty guy", and that guy's name is William H. Gates III, or just Bill. Intel, AMD or substandard hardware these CPUs are placed on aren't to be blamed.After the errata was posted, Intel partners were informed that a fix is on the way. Later, Intel pushed out a microcode update in a form of BIOS update to its hardware partners, and there are already a lot of products in the channel with correct BIOSes from the start. For others, updating your BIOS with a newer version will apply the hotly debated update. Biggest error of this affair is not disclosing what the microcode update is for, or complete story about the erratum - leaving ground opened for rampant speculations which we saw on many forums, and with Microsoft releasing an security important update without any descriptions but "seriousness of the issue", the ground for major panic was born.The errata itself has something to do with Translation Lookaside Buffers, also known to this world as TLB, part of the microarchitecture that is improving access to system memory as much as possible by keeping refences to physical memory in its own table.Intel came back to us with the following statement:"We’ve addressed a processor issue by providing a BIOS update for our customers that in no way affects system performance. We have documented this as an errata. All processors from all companies have errata, and Intel has a well-known errata communication process to inform our customers and the public. Keep in mind the probability of encountering this issue is low. Intel documented the issue a few months ago - Specification Updates for the affected processors are available at http://developer.intel.com."The errata inside all Core 2 processors (T series, E series, Q series, QX series and Xeon 5000 series) can appear in very rare cases, and it can result a computer refusing to accept keyboard of mouse inputs. In Windows environment, it may result with a worldly known Blue Screen of Death, while Linux'es of this world may end up with kernel panic.In conclusion, this problem has been fixed, with BIOS updates for motherboards containing fixes after the erratum was posted on developer.intel.com. Microsoft came up with a patch that will stop errata from possibly appearing, Apple already updated Mac OS X while the Linux status is unknown at time of writing*. It remains to be seen whether the companies will rather choose to go full disclosure of every error that happens in the future. µ
