Re: [PATCH] x86, CPU, AMD: Add workaround for family 16h, erratum 793

H. Peter Anvin
2014-01-17T00:25:42Z

On 01/16/2014 04:21 PM, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Jan 2014, Aravind Gopalakrishnan wrote:
>> We might want to still have a software fix for this just in case
>> someone uses older BIOSes..
>
> There is no "just in case" when it comes to someone using outdated firmware.
> It is a *given*, except for hardware that is only used in HPC and multiple
> (> 2) socket servers/workstations (which might be the case here, I don't
> know what processors we're talking about).
>
> The vast majority of PC users will never update their firmware, unless the
> update is automatically offered to them, and sometimes not even in that
> case.
>

Yes, the real question is: did the broken BIOS ship in production
systems? We don't care about engineering samples/beta boxes, but once
it is sold as a product, it is real.

-hpa