AMD Zen 2 processors get hardware level Spectre protection

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In the previous post, we talked about AMD graphics cards, lets now talk about processors, as in the same conference call AMD (Lisa Su) mentions that upcoming Zen 2 (7nm) processors will not be vulnerable towards Spectre attacks, on a hardware level. 



Su specifically mentions that AMD does not believe that Spectre flaws pose a real threat to its processors, regardless, you can expect the Zen 2 architecture for AMD's next processors to be Spectre-proof she adds. The news once again was transcribed from the quarterly earnings conference call. AMD specifically mentioned this news and also reiterates that current generation processors are not vulnerable towards Meltdown, and only partly susceptible to the 2nd variant of Spectre. Su thinks that the chances of that vulnerability being used/abused are close to NIL. So let me reiterate: the architecture is not susceptible to Meltdown and only partially conditional on the second Spectre variant ("Branch Target Injection"), which will be dealt with through a microcode update.



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To clear up something, you should not confuse ZEN 2 (7nm) with Ryzen 2 (12nm,). Ryzen 2 is to be released in a few months time (likely April), and is an update of the current generation Ryzen processors with some tweaks and optimizations. So there is no fundamental architecture change to be found here. AMD will be offering optional microcode updates (BIOS updates) that will protect all ZEN processors against Spectre. 

Zen 2 is (likely) due for release next year, 2019 in the form of the Ryzen 3000 series processors fabbed at 7nm, these processors offer hardware-level protection against Spectre.


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AMD Zen 2 processors get hardware level Spectre protection


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