The Intel Specter patch is causing reboot problems for older processors.
The Intel Specter patch is causing reboot problems for older processors.
Intel is having trouble protecting its chips from the major Meltdown and Specter vulnerabilities that were made public last week. The company has been warning customers of three specific flaws in a recent firmware update and the recommendation that customers stay away from installing the patch, according to the emails first reported by The Wall Street Journal. According to an Intel tracking ad, the problem may cause reboot problems on systems running older Haswell chips.
Intel has been aware of Specter's problems since June, but rewriting processor firmware to address the vulnerability proved to be a significant challenge. The company is committed to protecting 90 percent of its CPUs produced in the last five years, with patches that will be implemented before January 15, but technical problems have tarnished those patches across the board. Earlier this week, Microsoft had to stop deploying AMD's Specter patches after they stopped allowing some computers to boot.
Patching the CPU's firmware is widely seen as the most technically challenging element of Specter recovery, much more challenging than the operating system or browser patches that were implemented last week. It is also the patch most likely to slow down computers, although it is not yet clear how significant the performance will be. Recent Intel benchmarks show less than 5 percent slowdown in recent processors, but those tests did not extend to Haswell processors affected by current problems.