https://thehackernews.com/2018/05/fourth-critical-spectre-cpu-flaw.html

https://liliputing.com/2018/05/intels-hardware-based-spectre-mitigations-wont...



Spectre Variant 4 is a speculative execution side channel vulnerability similar to other Spectre variants. It was disclosed this week by Google’s Project Zero and Microsoft’s Security Response Center, and Intel notes that there are already web browser updates designed to help protect users against attacks based on the Variant 4 vulnerability.

That’s a good thing because this sort of attack is most likely to be executed in runtimes such as JavaScript that are used in web browsers.

In fact, while Intel says it’s already started making microcode updates available to partners to help mitigate the risk of Spectre Variant 4, the company says it’s set to off by default, since this vulnerability isn’t considered quite as critical as some of the others.

Computer makers and software vendors will be able to turn on the microcode if they want extra protection, but Intel says that with the feature enabled, computer users may see a 2 to 8 percent drop in performance in benchmarks (and maybe in real-world performance).

Update: Intel says it’s added functionality to its microcode called a Speculative Store Bypass Disable (SSBD) bid that can be used to help offer protection against this and future vulnerabilities.

Intel says it will take until 2019 to fix these new items first reported in early 2018, things that Intel requested that the discoverers hold in secret until Intel could work on it some.

Intel just lost another 2-8% of performance, in other words ......



"..... and Intel notes that there are already web browser updates designed to help protect users against attacks based on the Variant 4 vulnerability."  

This translates into Google and Chrome Browser didn't stick their finger up their butt for 4 months like Intel did -- they have already fixed what they can as far as browser attack vectors go.

Intel has again, done nothing to fix their issues.

https://www.semiaccurate.com/2018/05/29/is-intels-upcoming-10nm-launch-real-o...

What SemiAccurate has learned about Intel’s upcoming 10nm ‘release’ paints a contradictory picture for the company. It is the polar opposite of a real launch of a manufacturable product,  i.e. just a PR stunt to keep the stock price from crashing.

May 29, 2018 article in blue by Charlie Demerjian

Authors Note: This article and analysis would normally be for subscribers only, however we feel a duty to inform the public of the facts in this instance.

Define Real:

In a really nice find, ComputerBase found a Lenovo Ideapad 330 with a 10nm Cannon Lake CPU aboard.  This means Intel’s 10nm process is all on track and everything is all right, right? That is the intended message but it both contradicts what SemiAccurate moles have been saying for years now and Intel’s CEO have been saying for weeks, that the 10nm process doesn’t work. But it is coming out, right? Right. So what is actually going on?

Why Now, Why This?:

So why is Lenovo putting this turkey out? Do they have a warehouse full of them that someone else needs the space for? Do they see an up side that isn’t portrayed by the specs, tech, manufacturability, or anything else? Is the device actually real or is it just an error in a database scheduled quarters ago that someone forgot to delete? SemiAccurate once again dug in and found out all the details.

The idea is pretty simple, Intel needs to book a win to counteract the well deserved pain it is getting from the 10nm meltdown. Since their PR strategy has made them universally hated among the press, there are few sympathetic ears out there other than paid shills. Even the most ardent of sycophants are calling Intel out on their spurious claims so for the company, it is put up or shut up time. So Intel is going to make it look like they are putting up while not actually doing so because they can’t. The 10nm process simply not working is the spanner in the works in case you didn’t get it.

Twist Arm Backwards:

Intel can’t make 10nm parts at economically viable yields. Intel can’t make 10nm parts that have a salable feature set. Intel can’t make 10nm parts that beat their 14nm predecessors. But they can make small numbers of 10nm parts that, when you fuse half the die off, kinda sorta work at twice the power levels of the 14nm parts, just slower. If you take a fraction of the top bin of these parts, you get the killer device known as i3-8121U that literally none of the OEMs want to touch with a 10 foot pole because it will be death on the shelves.

Even if Intel subsidizes these parts to zero or below, the chips wouldn’t sell other than to geeks and reviewers. Why? Because battery life will be abysmal. Even if in real world use the CPU TDP isn’t 2x that of the 14nm parts, it is significantly more, and the external GPU that can never be turned off will eat up a chunk more too. This isn’t going to be a laptop that wins awards and everyone in the supply chain and OEM community knows it. To sell them, Intel needs to twist arms. And that is exactly what SemiAccurate’s sources tell us they are doing.

Stunts Ahoy!:

We are told that this PR stunt is going to be quite bounded for several reasons. First is the cost of making these CPUs, a large multiple of the cost of the 14nm parts. Second is supply, Intel is taking the top bin of the 10nm production lot, screening those, and ending up with the 8121U, two cores and no working GPU. Think about the piles of very expensive sand chunks that didn’t make the cut, a fraction of the top bin is not a huge percentage. Third they won’t sell on merit either to the OEMs or the public so there has to be a lot of subsidy dollars involved, directly or indirectly. SemiAccurate is told that still isn’t enough so Intel is politely applying pressure to grease the OEM wheels.

At this point OEMs are smiling and nodding because they have to. Intel has scraped up about 100K chips that meet the cut to distribute among OEMs. Each OEM has been asked to make one model featuring a 10nm part and to “Make it look real“. Depending on the number of OEMs that get blessed with these parts, each one should receive between 5-20K chips to sell to the public, then job done. (Note 3: We are told this 100K is a one time deal and will not be followed up by more i3-8121Us or any other 10nm parts until volume production ramps again in well over a year from now)

Officially Intel now has a triumphant launch of 10nm parts across a dozen or so OEMs which has to be real, right? The 10nm parts work, obviously have been in production since late 2017 as Intel said, and the crushing 10nm problems are anything but. Could a dozen OEMs make a dozen laptops if there were really crippling production problems? Intel is going to try and spin the 10nm meltdown as a "correct management choice" aided by this very very expensive staged "data point".

A Little Math:

Think back to the past 20 or so chip launches that were actually real, each was preceded by a claim of dozens of OEMs and a wall of laptops sporting the devices. Any guesses what we will see at Computex this year? This whole 10nm ‘launch’ is designed to look real by being designed to look like the past launches even if there is no way it could be. If you look at the numbers, Intel sells about 250M chips a year now, give or take a few tens of millions. Lets call it 667K a day or so, weekends and holidays included.

That means that the 100K 10nm CPUs Intel is forcing OEMs to take account for ~15% of ONE DAY’S production at Intel or 0.0004% of their yearly output. Now think back to Intel’s statement that production has been going on since late 2017 and everything is fine. It took the company six months to make 15% of a single day’s output volume for their entire 10nm output. And half of those chips (the CPU half) flat out doesn’t work.

Still think nothing is wrong with 10nm? Still think it is ‘going as planned’? Still think they know what the problem is? Still think they have a fix? Still think that production will ramp in 2019 as promised?

Not The End Of This Story:

In the end we have a chip being built on a troubled 10nm process. In six months Intel can make 15% of a day’s production on those production lines. The resultant chips are abjectly broken, they are 2+1 but the +1 doesn’t work which means they are selling a sorted to death CPU with half the die turned off, an expensive proposition given the cost of the process and the shatteringly low yields. Even with the GPU turned off, the resultant CPU uses twice the power of the 14nm devices to run slower than those with a GPU.

OEMs won’t touch these 10nm parts either voluntarily or with ‘standard bribes’ so Intel has to twist arms and force the OEMs to make some laptops just to “Make it look real“.  Why? To put out a data point that they can build ‘truth’ and ‘alternative facts’ around when it comes time to talk to analysts. The 10nm Cannon Lake parts aren’t real and never will be viable, financially or technically speaking. Feel free to believe the PR messaging if you want, but you can’t say you don’t know what is really going on now.

Things to take away from this 10nm mess ...... Intel has gone through their ENTIRE 4 years worth of backlog trial run chipsets ..... sorted them then laser truncated them and sorted them yet again.   This was done to 4 years of accumulated 10nm trial run silicone and Intel has already sold what they could of it to China where Intel was careful that the stuff not wind up in the hands of the American Computing Press No BS Benchmark Boys.   It is all gone now.   THERE WASN'T ENOUGH OF IT TO EVEN NOTICE .....  a 98% scrap rate took place during all that sorting at least.

Intel has now attempted to run a brand new production lot, a very simple low end dual core 10nm part in a brand new fresh real production run, and what you read above was the result of that brand new "full production run".   The GPU doesn't work, it pulls twice the power that it is supposed to and it runs twice as slow as it is supposed to.  

And Intel can't fix it and Intel is now really struggling just to get a good enough lie put together to cover up for it.   The clearly stated truth is simply too damaging and embarrassing.   Intel paid big bucks to run a broken line to make up a steaming pile of broken crap just so they could say "We are in production at 10nm."


DO NOT BUY 10nm INTEL PRODUCTS !!!!


Both Intel and Microsoft have shown themselves willing to PAY to force OEMs to build a very few pure assed trash BS turkey laptop units just to try to keep their respective corporate images up (and their stock prices from crashing).  

Intel is staying stuck at 14nm for the foreseeable future.    Period.    Get used to it.



Intel would be smart to just drop all the BS "for appearance only" non-real limited production runs of limping laptops and just go back into their tar pool and stay there until they fix something.   Just go soak up all that blackness until they can actually SUCCESSFULLY make them some real 10nm production runs with some good yields of desirable salable FULLY FUNCTIONAL chipsets that will have good test results whenever the benchmark guys finally get their hands on them.

Anything other than this is primed to be a REALLY BIG black eye for Intel as the anti-BS benchmark boys and the European Trade Commission people are just sitting out there jest a waiting for Intel to give them another nasty scandal to post all over the internet.

My gut is that Intel was and is the best in the world at doing dinosaur type things.    We all used to do it that way and that is what Intel has specialized in and was very very successful in doing that for a long long time.

Sad thing is that the era of the dinosaur is over now but Intel has no skills in the new world of mobile / automotive tech and their same old same old tricks simply aren't cutting it any more, no matter how many large 14nm heater cores they put out there to share the task loads in super massive parallel, they simply aren't ever gonna win again.

Intel is simply past the point of diminishing returns ......

Intel is simply some thick slowly popping bubbles coming up from below the surface of the tar pit.


==================================================


Intel has "announced" today that they are going to compete against AMD and Quacomm ----- wait for it ----- using their Xenon rackspace technology swinging core counts of 48 and 72 cores.

Folks, are you willing to pay the cost for a 48 core processor built by Intel off their 14nm technology?  You are talking $8,000 -$12,000 just for the processor (if it is on sale no less).

One thinks perhaps the Intel PR BS boys got confused between Rackspace PR BS and Consumer PR BS as already nobody can afford Intel's current Core i9 consumer products with 8-12 cores.

In any case, there are no consumer power supplies big enough to support 72 Intel cores, that sort of action generally requires a rack sized separate power supply.

We shall see.    

Qualcomm and Microsoft are planning custom built ARM tech SoCs based off the A-76 generation and that gives Intel a problem, because as soon as MS really begins programming for ARM in a primary fashion, then Intel goes below the tar surface level permanently.  

WHAT THE INTEL WIZARDS HAD HIDDEN BEHIND THE CURTAINS AT THE COMPUTEX SHOW OUTRAGES THE FANS AND SCANDALIZES THE REVIEWERS WHO WERE IMMEDIATELY UP ON THE STAGE BEFORE ANYTHING COULD BE REMOVED AT THE INTEL COMPUTEX KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

And this is from Forbes, a financial magazine who covered the Computex show from a financial point of view.  Forbes found Intel to be lacking in candor, a thing that gets you fired from the FBI lately and puts you in danger of going to jail if you work for the government when you do this lack of candor thing on an official level.  Intel ain't got any candor at all apparently -- and Forbes is calling them on it suggesting that perhaps other financial information provided for Intel investors may be getting "spun" by these same sorts of tactics.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2018/06/08/intels-shady-tactics-re...

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-28-core-cpu-5ghz,37244.html

Intel's lying and trickery sink to a new low (behind the scenes look at Intel's just announced 28 core 5GHZ processor, motherboard and cooler as announced at Computex this past week)

Intel's Shady Tactics Revealed: PC Enthusiasts Furious Over 28-Core 5GHz Processor

Intel has caused a huge backlash from the PC enthusiast community with the way it revealed a surprise 28-core processor at the Computex trade show this week.

Intel was first up in the speaker order and used this to announce what many believed from the announcement would be its next high-end flagship processor - a 28-core monster that sees a 10-core increase compared to its current desktop flagship, the Core i9-7980XE, which has 18 cores.

However, Intel's illegitimate chicanery showed the new CPU running at 5GHz on all cores, which was due to some out of the ordinary extreme overclocking, which allowed many to think it had an AMD Threadripper-beating product on its hands.  

This was an intentionally done false impression, foisted by the use of hidden rack sized mother board, a huge independent power supply and a HUGE industrial refrigerant water chiller that was required to cool the beast when it was briefly running at a 5 ghz speed.

Once again, it has since come to light that Intel's new CPU will not only be huge and require an equally huge processor socket and an industrial strength extensive power circuitry, most likely making motherboards very expensive, but it has been revealed that to get the CPU to run at 5GHz it was dangerously overclocked and it had to be cooled by an expensive high-power industrial refrigerant water chiller.


Toms Hardware
The motherboard Intel used to benchmark its 28-core processor doesn't appear to be aimed at desktop PCs at all.



Toms Hardware
Intel used an industrial sized water-chiller to cool the 28-core CPU so it could reach 5GHz when overclocked - not exactly what you're typical enthusiast or even high-end content creator does.

PC enthusiasts and journalists have responded to these findings with anger claiming Intel should have made it clearer that the CPU was overclocked, that the test system was using a server-class motherboard and more importantly that the CPU was using exotic refrigerant cooling and not off-the-shelf liquid or air cooling.  

All the Intel fans cheering in the stands now feel like stupid trust abused pawn'd-boys since they had bought the BS PR hook line and sinker.

AMD revealed its hand soon after this backfiring Intel lying mess in its own keynote presentation - which was simple, inside 90 days AMD is bringing out a 32-core 2nd Generation Threadripper, which trumps Intel's fraudulent entry by four cores.  The AMD case was on top of the table and was door open so you could see normal type water cooling and a normal sized power supply.  

This AMD effort was warmly received by the crowd, but since it was only running a doable 4.2 ghz it wasn't seen to be as good as the Intel 5 ghz BS shown just previously. 

AMD, by contrast, stated with complete candor that its 2nd Generation Threadripper CPUs will be compatible with current desktop X399 motherboards, requiring a BIOS update but no hardware or socket change with a rough idea of power consumption, with TDPs in the region of 250W.

The disparity in honesty and candor between the two companies quickly became the real take away from the two presentations.  And then the wave of anger and outrage from the various tech magazine reviewers began to hit the web making even more news.

Another difference is Intel's CPUs are clearly ports from their existing server line-ups while AMD's pre-existing standard Threadripper motherboard already had two full sized sockets under the hood with ample connection room anyway, so all AMD has had to do is fully pack and activate these sockets to double the core count from 16 with the Threadripper 1950X to 32 with its new desktop flagship CPUs.  This means AMD's tech is real, already has shipped in volume to the public and just requires two new CPU cores and a bios update should you already own the motherboard.  

Intel, on the other hand, is looking at designing a whole new giant rack sized motherboard, a HUGE new set of sockets with what appears to be over 1,000 extra pins per socket compared to the existing LGA2066 socket for its Skylake-X CPUs.  

None of this Intel hardware actually exists for consumers right now AT ALL and it is now likely that it never will exist now that it has been outed as a complete fraud.

There is, of course, the outside chance that this is simply very very early technology and that the company was merely teasing the audience and trying to steal AMD's thunder from the AMD announcement, but the lack of clarity and candor shown here has backfired on Intel quite badly, damaging Intel's image and trust levels.  

The press and the Intel fans are apparently quite tired of being lied to ROUTINELY by Intel ......

It remains to be seen what Intel's plans are for its next generation of high-end desktop processors, although the word is that there is a real CPU and a work in progress, but AMD looks actually set to offer new Threadripper CPUs in the next few months with up to 32 cores. I'll hopefully be taking a look when they arrive so make sure you follow me here on Forbes or at the various social media channels below.



         

Intel needs to hire some much classier, more upscale, much much much better liars for its Marketing Dept.


Tom's Hardware tracked down the actual rig itself as Intel was trying to take it off the stage and Tom's took all the pictures to expose this fraud -- Tom's Hardware and Ars Technica then attempted to get Intel senior management to clarify what the heck just took place.

As a follow up series, this is priceless ...... and shows just how far Intel will go to put up an false image that has no reality behind it at all.

Now you understand why the understated Forbes financial magazine charges of "lack of candor" and why Forbes covered it from that angle.   The proof of Intel's BS lying was of more importance to Forbes investors than any little current changes in technology.


https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-28-core-cpu-5ghz,37244.html

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-28-core-processor-5ghz-motherboard,37...

https://www.techspot.com/news/75009-intel-28-core-fantasy-vs-amd-32-core.html

I did mention the outraged and angry foaming at the mouth PC press review people about Intel's little "liar liar pants on fire" presentation?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTTPSuH24b8          its a YouTube, click on it

https://appuals.com/intel-28-core-cpu-pr-stunt/


Forbes finally got Intel personnel to attempt to explain what they did (and why) --- what becomes clear is that Intel just can't keep from compounding their lies with MORE LIES that are even less likely than the ones before.
You say the Intel presenters got confused which show they were at ???   They put together the presentation slides and the see me case showing all the super duper gaming type decorative items and then ran the output video and keyboard connections to the concealed ugly rackspace board which was  hooked up to the supercooler?  They did this saying the special processor and ugly motherboard and the refrigerant cooler and the super power supply hardware was all supposedly intended for an upcoming rackspace overclocking demonstration ???    

    yeah, sure --- rackspace people don't ever over clock their motherboards, ever.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/06/08/intel-explains-why-it-...

New knowledge .......   The supercooler was in a soundproof enclosure with air flow sonic baffles located underneath the curtained table because it was WAY TOO NOISY --- hey how about you didn't want people at the show to be able to see neither the big ugly motherboard mounting the special sorted chipset, NOR the refrigerant super cooler set up NOR the giant power supply unit that your dirty little trick depended upon.

HOW BIG was that power supply?  1,300 watts total ability, supplied over 1,000 watts during the demo.
HOW COLD was the refrigeration cooling system?   -40 degrees F

Next item, the sheer amount of effort that had to be spent sorting and "binning' just to find a single chipset that could overclock a single 2.4 ghz core up to over 5 ghz (no matter what power supply and what cooling system was used).  

Multiply this amount of effort now, multiply it enough to find one, just one chipset and socket set that could handle this sort of action on ALL 28 CORES AT THE SAME TIME ...... the amount of effort spent in "binning" just to find these items was fairly astronomical all by itself according to the Tom's Hardware people.

Next, the service life of that special binned chipset would likely be measured in 10's of hours, not in 100 thousands of hours.   Overclocking at those voltages and frequencies (at over 200% performance increase) is well past what even crazy enthusiasts would attempt to do for long.

How many times has Intel done completely fraudulent tricks like this, but because they were Intel and they were trusted, they got clean away with this sort of bullshite?    Do they discover these special chipsets early on and carefully keep them so they can use them during demos?

How many times has the system you can see up on the table, it has NOT been the one driving the screen and the input devices, but instead a carefully sorted and binned "special refrigerant cooled rig" in an acoustical box under the table was what was actually hooked up and running the benchmark test?



Sorry boys, all that naive trust from years past is all gone now.  

With Intel, what you see is NOT what you get.

Intel internally forces out Brian Krzanich in disgrace

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/21/intel-ceo-brian-krzanich-to-step-down-bob-swa...

Read it and realize that the ostensible reason given for the ouster is a 2 year old, quite minor, quite dated, quite moldy VERY VERY OLD reason.  Realize that what Intel really really wanted was any acceptable reason to ouster a very very ineffective leader who exhibited very poor judgement without causing their stock value to tank any worse than it has already done.  

So this is Intel's lying spin story and they are sticking to it.

What happened last week at the Computex show and in the Krzanich interviews he gave the next day had nothing to do with Intel kicking out their current CEO, nothing at all .......     Right ......

Nor did the 10% stock price decline that accompanied these dual paragons of poor judgment.  Nor did Intel's senior management team's poor judgement in kicking Krazanich out so abruptly -- that all rounds the stock dip up to 25% as of today.

Smmooooth move, Intel, really really smmooooth.    Dig a big 'ol hole with your mouth, the lot of you.

Intel has gotten so very very bad at lying convincingly, they really suck at the big lie now, really.

https://wccftech.com/amd-7nm-vega-gpu-zen-2-cpu-mass-production-tsmc/


TSMC Begins Mass Production of 7nm Process, AMD Vega 7nm Confirmed, Zen 2 CPUs Expected Too – Production Capacity To Increase By 3 Times Next Year    Intel, firing your CEO doesn't change the evil things you have done to yourself over the last 5 years

   

AMD CEO Lisa Su holds up an old 14 nm Epyc dual processor set next to a new 7nm four core processor for size comparison.
Lisa thinks she perhaps can take a 35-50% new sales market share THIS YEAR .....  with her limitation coming from total 7nm production capacity.

Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or TSMC has just confirmed that the mass production of their 7nm process node has just begun. The 7nm process would be used in new products which include orders from AMD too, who will be using the process to leverage their upcoming GPU and CPU hardware.

AMD 7nm Vega and 7nm Zen 2 CPUs Orders Received by TSMC, 7nm Mass Production Officially Begins

In a report published by Chinatimes, TSMC has officially begun mass production of their 7nm node at their Fab 15. It is stated that TSMC has already confirmed the production of AMD 7nm GPUs that are part of their Radeon Instinct and Radeon Pro lineups, expected to hit market availability in 2H 2018.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/qualcomm-snapdragon-1000-details/



This is the real size of a Snapdragon 845 chipset.   Take a look at an imaginary rectangle that the pushpin just fits on, corner to corner, and that is the Snapdragon 1000's proposed size.

New details about the rumored Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 system on chip (SoC) suggest that it will be powerful enough to compete directly with Intel’s Y- and U-series Core processors, but do so with a lower power draw. Better yet, we’re told it’s physically smaller too, despite being much larger than Qualcomm’s typical Snapdragon SoCs.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors are typically used in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. They offer good general processing and graphics performance at a lower power draw than chips from the typical desktop manufacturers like Intel and AMD. However, laptop manufacturers have begun to offer Qualcomm-equipped systems to those wanting an alternative option and the Snapdragon 1000 could be the most impressive offering in that space to date.

The latest details come from a report by German website, WinFuture, which claims that it will be an even more powerful chip than the already laptop-oriented Snapdragon 850 (a higher-clocked, optimized for Windows PCs SoC). Ars Technica translates that the Snapdragon 1000 will have a total power draw of 12w, which puts it squarely between Intel’s 4.5w and 15w Y- and U-series Core CPUs.

That power draw is much higher than the upcoming 6.5w pulled by Snapdragon 850 and there’s a larger physical footprint to go with it. Where the 850 measures 12 x 12mm, the 1000 is said to be as large as 20 x 15mm. However, as Ars Technica highlights, that’s still much smaller than Intel’s comparable offerings. It is slated to be roughly as powerful though, with claimed performance around that of 2017 Intel Core CPUs.

If that turns out to be true, that would mean a significant new wrinkle in the Windows laptop canvas, as it could mean smaller devices, with lower-profile cooling options and better battery life all in one package. While we’ll need to wait to hear the official announcements to learn how accurate these early claims are, if they turn out to be true, Qualcomm could become a serious competitor in the laptop hardware space in the near future.

With AMD’s Ryzen CPU drive over the past year and its intriguing APU offerings providing serious graphical competition for Intel, the portable computing market is more intriguing and wide today than it’s been in years. Considering how much desktop PC gamers have suffered in the past year, that’s a refreshing change of pace.