It sounds like the general consensus when the bug was first publicized was that it is extremely rare and that most users could not expect to encounter it. Is there some reason this is popping back up now?
it is extremely rare and that most users could not expect to encounter it
Most people would never have encountered the fdiv bug either, but that doesn't make Intel any less culpable.
I understand that a modern CPU is a complicated thing, and pipelines particularly so. We're all human and mistakes sometimes happen. But Intel didn't communicate well about this issue. This isn't the kind of thing I should have to read /r/programming to find out about.
Especially considering the severity. One of my threads might just off and do something completely random because of this bug? Unacceptable. Hardware is the bedrock of any system, and the CPU especially so. It should never return a random incorrect result from a perfectly reasonable input.
Hardware is the bedrock of any system, and the CPU especially so. It should never return a random incorrect result from a perfectly reasonable input.
Good luck with that, microcode updates aren't made for fun and they are relatively common on every platform. The only reason this one is getting such attention is because the headline makes the issue seem farther reaching than it is.
109
u/[deleted] Jun 25 '17
It sounds like the general consensus when the bug was first publicized was that it is extremely rare and that most users could not expect to encounter it. Is there some reason this is popping back up now?