Re: [PATCH] Mutilated form of Andi Kleen's AMD prefetch errata patch

Andrew Morton
2003-10-01T05:47:59Z

Jamie Lokier <jamie@shareable.org> wrote:
>
> Nakajima, Jun wrote:
> > Yes. It would kind to tell the pilot about the errata of the engine (and
> > refuse to start), rather than telling him that the engine might break
> > down anytime after the takeoff.
>
> Doesn't refusing to boot seem to heavy handed for this bug? The buggy
> CPUs have been around for many years (it is practically the entire AMD
> line for the last 4 years or so), and nobody in userspace has
> complained about the 2.4 behaviour so far. (Linux 2.4 behaviour is,
> of course, to ignore the errata).

That is the case at present. But the 2.6 kernel was hitting this
erracularity daily.

If some smart cookie decides to add prefetches to some STL implementation
or something, they are likely to start hitting it with the same frequency.