Thursday, August 23rd 2018
Intel Gags Customers from Publishing Performance Impact of Microcode Updates
Much of the secret sauce that made Intel processors faster than AMD is going sour, as the cybersecurity community is finding gaping security vulnerabilities by exploiting features such as speculative execution. Intel's microcode updates that mitigate these vulnerabilities impact performance. Intel isn't too happy about public performance numbers put out by its customers, which it fears could blunt the competitive edge of its products. The company has hence updated the license terms governing the microcode update distribution to explicitly forbid its users from publishing comparative "before/after" performance numbers of patched processors.
The updated license for the microcode update has this controversial sentence (pay attention to "v"):
Some of Intel's biggest enterprise customers are cloud computing providers such as AWS, Microsoft, and Google, who have made it their duty to keep their customers informed about the performance impact of microcode updated processors, since it impacts their cost/performance when the scale is big enough. This gag is both unethical, and probably even illegal.
Source:
Bruce Perens (Blog)
The updated license for the microcode update has this controversial sentence (pay attention to "v"):
"You will not, and will not allow any third party to (i) use, copy, distribute, sell or offer to sell the Software or associated documentation; (ii) modify, adapt, enhance, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, change or create derivative works from the Software except and only to the extent as specifically required by mandatory applicable laws or any applicable third party license terms accompanying the Software; (iii) use or make the Software available for the use or benefit of third parties; or (iv) use the Software on Your products other than those that include the Intel hardware product(s), platform(s), or software identified in the Software; or (v) publish or provide any Software benchmark or comparison test results."
78 Comments on Intel Gags Customers from Publishing Performance Impact of Microcode Updates
Boy, those Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs sure do look enticing!
That and Ice Lake is a really unknown quantity at this time. And that means it still a chance to impress.
(qubit collects his fee from Intel)
What about tech Journalists and websites publishing reviews or opinion pieces? Is that covered by this, or is this next on the list?
And what is TechPowerUp's response to this?
Then let the class action suits begin.
Stock market will then do the correcting. Can't count on government to fix this.
i remember some comments about intel not being "afraid" with all the zen situation... hmmmmmm :Dsure mate.. bc the stock market gives a shit.. lel.. the stock market is just legalized gambling so i wouldn't get my hopes up as long as the public perception of intel is "perfection", and you know how "difficult" is to play with the public perception.. crapple seems to have huge difficulties maintaining it.. oh wait..intel isn't thinking, they just don't give a fuck because they have 80+% of the market. they will just "suffer" their stupidity for a year or so and then is business as usual with all the morons going blue because "10 fps difference" and then will bitch again about how "non competitive" is amd with 1/10 of intels budget which they literally created with their own moronic passion for having the biggest e-penis. so, no, thinking has nothing to do with anything because thinking takes into account future consequences.
Could it get worse?
I find it kind of sad.
Not everyone needs or wants 5GHz CPU for gaming or showoff, 5GHz (hexa core) isn't always better than 4GHz (octa core) even with the scaling being dodgy beyond 8 or 12 threads in different tasks.
It's about new things, new challenges. And boy, early adopting Ryzen was a challenge :roll:
But, guess what? Ryzen 2 is my upgrade path and it's sure to be a good jump up from what I have.