[GTALUG] "Golden Age for Computer Architecture"

[Russell Reiter]

On Sun, Aug 12, 2018, 12:38 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

> This Turing Award Winners talk is quite insigtful.
>
> Full title: "A New Golden Age for Computer Architecture:
> Domain-Specific Hardware/Software Co-Design, Enhanced Security, Open
> Instruction Sets, and Agile Chip Development"
>
> The speakers are key figures in the RISC revolution.
> John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson
>
> <https://www.acm.org/hennessy-patterson-turing-lecture>
>
> Note: they mean that it is a golden age for researchers.  Not so good
> for users.
>

Interesting stuff thanks.

I just came across this info on the hidden RISC in VIA chipsets now aka the
rosenbridge backdoor.

Apparently it was discovered by reading through some linked patent records.
He has fuzzy tools so you can check your own hardware.

Some wag deemed it a "ring 4" exploit.

https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/rosenbridge

The rosenbridge backdoor is a small, non-x86 core embedded alongside the
main x86 core in the CPU. It is enabled by a model-specific-register
control bit, and then toggled with a launch-instruction. The embedded core
is then fed commands, wrapped in a specially formatted x86 instruction. The
core executes these commands (which we call the 'deeply embedded
instruction set'), bypassing all memory protections and privilege checks.

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