Some Intel Chips Can Be Reconfigured to Support AES

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Ivan Avery Frey <ivan.avery.frey-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| Hmmm, does this update the firmware on the processor? Isn't that dangerous?

As I understand it, all recent BIOSes include a modest CPU patchset.
This isn't talked about much because it is a matter between the CPU
vendor and the motherboard/BIOS manufacturer.

Note: this update needs to be re-applied at each time the CPU is
powered on, it isn't flashing eeprom on the processor.

Logically, since a BIOS supports multiple CPUs, I guess they must have
a set of patchsets.

What is recent?  Perhaps (not at all sure) since the Pentium II.

For some time, the Linux kernel has been willing to install (on each
boot) firmware updates if the BIOS isn't up to date.

Oh, here's an Arch page on the topic:
<https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Microcode>
The single Intel Microcode Data File seems to only go back to the P4;
I cannot tell from the names if it goes back further ("Pentium" is a
brand name and stands for many different processors).
The AMD code covers AMD family 10h, 11h, 14h and 15h CPUs
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists