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Microprocessor Designers Realize Security Must Be a Primary Concern

posted by mrpg on Thursday July 19 2018, @09:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the yes dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

[...] Recently, security researchers have found that some innovations have let secrets flow freely out of computer hardware the same way software vulnerabilities have led to cyberattacks and data breaches. The best known recent examples were the chip flaws nicknamed Spectre and Meltdown that affected billions of computers, smartphones and other electronic devices. On July 10, researchers announced they discovered new variants of those flaws exploiting the same fundamental leaks in the majority of microprocessors manufactured within the last 20 years.

This realization has led to calls from microchip industry leaders, including icons John Hennessy and David Patterson, for a complete rethinking of computer architecture to put security first. I have been a researcher in the computer architecture field for 15 years – as a graduate student and professor, with stints in industry research organizations – and conduct research in power-management, microarchitecture and security. It's not the first time designers have had to reevaluate everything they were doing. However, this awakening requires a faster and more significant change to restore users' trust in hardware security without ruining devices' performance and battery life.

Is Open Hardware the answer?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Thursday July 19 2018, @09:49PM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday July 19 2018, @09:49PM (#709622) Journal

    https://archive.fo/SkiH0 [archive.fo]

    Note that it's an archive of an Internet Archive capture, but if you follow the original link it has been "excluded" from the Wayback Machine. ARM tried to cover their tracks.

    Keep an eye on RISC-V. It needs to succeed.

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  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:27AM (1 child)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:27AM (#710205) Homepage Journal

    Seems to me the ARM architecture has a number of variations. too.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:40AM

      by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday July 21 2018, @01:40AM (#710210) Journal

      Are the variations in Samsung Eyxnos, Apple A*, Qualcomm Snapdragon, et al. on the level of "private extensions" of the instruction set?

      Either way, I don't think we need to analyze this Microsoftesque marketing propaganda too deeply. If there is truth in it, it has been stretched as far as possible to help promote ARM DesignShart.

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