
What has your microcode done for you lately? - matt_d
https://travisdowns.github.io/blog/2019/03/19/random-writes-and-microcode-oh-my.html
======
slacka
If you want prevent Meltdown and Spectre patches from slowing down Your PC, on
Windows you can use the InSpectre tool:
[https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm](https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm)

On linux add the following boot parameter: pti=off spectre_v2=off l1tf=off
nospec_store_bypass_disable no_stf_barrier

I saw a measurable decrease in build times in Linux. '$ time make' dropped
nearly 10%.

Of course do not do this if you visit sketchy websites, install dodgy
software, or open random attachment in email. That said, I can't find any
evidence that any mass attack has been based on these exploits. <tin foil hat>
Have a feeling our machines are made slower to make cloud providers safer or
sell more CPUs.</tin foil hat>

~~~
mises
I've got to somewhat agree with that. Meltdown and spectre were very serious,
but were also branded and marketed specifically to be "viral". Also, web
browsers, possibly the single biggest risk, were patched separately iirc.

~~~
paavoova
Some, such as Google developers, have said these vulnerabilities can't be
fixed in software: [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/02/google-software-
is-n...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/02/google-software-is-never-
going-to-be-able-to-fix-spectre-type-bugs/)

And it's ridiculous to give credence to the idea that the people pushing
software mitigations to Linux, and the maintainers merging them, are doing so
in bad faith.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Bad faith is unlikely. Overzealous sacrificing of performance for nebulous
gain in a large mount of use cases is, however, quite likely.

------
monocasa
Did AMD ever release Spectre ucode updates for K10 processors? We've got a
pretty good handle on the internal format of those and it'd be interesting to
see exactly what changed.

------
HenryBemis
Haha, that title reminds me of "Eddie, what have you done for me lately" from
Eddie Murphy's "Raw"!

