On 05/15/2019 01:26 AM, Adam Carter wrote: > Here we go again; > https://mdsattacks.com/ > > I notice a microcode update for skylake came through yesterday after being > unchanged since the late June 2018, so i'm guessing this is patched for > this issue. Just waiting for the gentoo sources ebuild to be bumped to > 5.1.2 to try it out. > > Sounds like AMD not affected.
x86 isn't the only game in town. There's also the raptorcs OpenPOWER systems which is the only new high performance hardware that is owner controlled, has foss firmware and no PSP/ME DRM. The new amd x86 are just as problematic due to having the PSP (AMD's ME) and all the problems that come with that. I don't include RISC-V since it is just as expensive as OpenPOWER for much less features and performance and it currently doesn't have an IOMMU. For laptops the only decent non-intel IOMMU having option right now is the G505S which has an IOMMU and supports coreboot with open cpu/ram init (note many companies sell shady "open source firmware coreboot" systems that have an entirely blobbed hw init process) Heres to hoping for a POWER or RISC-V+IOMMU laptop! A libre-firmware OpenPOWER Blackbird system is less expensive than a fully pimped libre-firmware KGPE-D16 and is many times faster even with just the base 4 core cpu (4 threads per core :D) and has the IBM version of OpenBMC which is better than the facebook version that was ported to the KCMA-D8/KGPE-D16's less powerful BMC. POWER is also the only high performance general computing CPU that is made in usa so you support jobs that pay a living wage at a fab that isn't messed around with by the PRC. Raptor claims their boards are us made as well although that is a lofty claim claim in the technology sector as the legal standard is "all or virtually all" components and many companies get shady like a certain one that claims their "linux focused" system is "us made" but the only part made here is the metal case. I would say the best and most secure setup would be: OpenPOWER Blackbird workstation KCMA-D8 for VM gaming (POWER only has a few indie games right now not anything commercial) which can max out the latest games in a VM at 1080p with a 4386 cpu and a RX590. G505S laptop for mobile computing running qubes Ideally you wouldn't run any programs on bare metal and everything would be done in a VM which is what I do even for gaming, watching movies etc.
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