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posted by janrinok on Saturday March 15 2014, @11:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the more-lock-in-is-just-what-we-needed dept.

FuckBeta writes:

"Guido Stepko reports - In an GOLEM interview at CEBIT 2014 fair, Frank Kuypers, technical account manager at INTEL corp., proudly presented a new feature in INTEL processors, called "hooks", beginning with the new 2014 "Merrifield" 64 bit SoC chip generation.

In the Intel network only mobiles with certain Android versions are allowed to use certain functionalities. If you then replace your Android version, e.g. by a free Cyanogenmod Android kernel, not only some chips would stop working, e.g. LTE/UMTS, but also mails from your employer would be blinded out, because now the processor itself would 'classify' the new software as 'risk'.

Now, beginning with the new 2014 power efficient mobile "Merrifield" processor generation, this functionality will be used to lock the processor for certain OS'es or OS versions. Whether there will be a SDK or use of this 'functionality' will be kept a secret, still is undecided, Kuypers said.

Ryan O'Dell sees a potential abuse of the technology: "You'll buy a computer from a shop with Windows OS and not be able to change to Linux or another OS in the future. You may be able to buy the processor unlocked for a sum. With mobile phones/tablets it can be worse with phone networks also potentially have a lock-in. It's a disaster for the consumer"

Google translation from German: (Google)

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:09AM (#17003)

    ... But a wake up call to stop buying Intel products because for years now they have been backdoored so badly that you may as well walk around with a big opening in the back of your pants, it's no less private than owning an Intel.

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:30AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:30AM (#17015)

    But a wake up call to stop buying Intel products because for years now they have been backdoored so badly that you may as well walk around with a big opening in the back of your pants, it's no less private than owning an Intel.

    Hey -- I only wear those pants in private situations at the weekend. You insensitive clod!

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by rev0lt on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:16AM

    by rev0lt (3125) on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:16AM (#17052)

    it's no less private than owning an Intel.

    Or any other "modern" CPU. On x86/AMD64 DMA attacks exist for a decade, and they aren't going away soon.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:14AM

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:14AM (#17074)

    I present this link and you guys can decide if this is real or not:

    http://everist.org/eevblog/20140128_NSA_ANT_Intel_ yellow.txt [everist.org]

    I honestly don't know and have not seen such a thing, but someone claims they have.

    fwiw

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:19AM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:19AM (#17112) Journal

    As long as we have AMD I really don't see a problem, just one more reason to buy AMD.

    Remember folks that the benches have been rigged for years (look up "Intel Cripple Compiler" to see how, and yes even the latest version is rigged, it merely documents now that its rigged but you still can't get it to put out SSE code with a non Intel CPUID) so don't go by those, take one for a spin and see for yourself. I have been AMD exclusive in the shop for years (only Intel systems are trade ins) and unless you are one of those in the few fields where you need every possible MHz (wave simulation, uberheavy number crunching) I bet my last buck in a blind test you wouldn't tell the difference...but your wallet would know.

    So if Intel wants to be a douche? Well this isn't the first time, remember who was pushing for Palladium last time, but being geeks we CAN make a difference as folks come to us to find out what to buy. Steer them away from Intel and towards AMD. As a nice bonus if you care about freedom and FOSS software AMD has been opening up their designs as fast as they can and are even paying for devs to work with th FOSS driver guys so AMD is the obvious choice on that front as well. I know my AMD hexa is pushing 5 years old and I'm still quite happy with it, it blows through video transcodes and games like nothing and runs insanely cool with nothing but a $25 HSF cooling it. A system similar to mine now goes for around $350 shipped in a Tigerkit and I've seen the quad kitss as low as $175, you just can't beat that.

    --
    ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
    • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:16AM

      by SlimmPickens (1056) on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:16AM (#17149)

      Tiger what? Tell me more about these cheap computers.

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 16 2014, @01:21PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 16 2014, @01:21PM (#17169)

        Can't speak for original poster, but I immediately thought of tiger direct and their bare bones upgrade kits and/or mobo kits.

        They don't sell upgrade kits quite what I'm looking for... they sell CPU/mobo kits, and "everything but the keyboard" combos, but not (or at least, not many) CPU/mobo/memory kits.

        I usually seem to upgrade at the mobo level since the 80s or so ... cpu, mobo, and memory. I don't need another power supply, or another case, or another video card. I certainly don't need another keyboard. So that's kinda annoying.

        • (Score: 2, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:40PM

          by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:40PM (#17320) Journal

          There is a good reason for that friend, its because the price of memory is changing too often and most builders want to choose how much RAM they need for a system. Your best bet if you don't want the whole shebang is the CPU/MOBO combos [tigerdirect.com] the best deal of which ATM is IMHO this hexa kit [tigerdirect.com] which sounds like EXACTLY what you want. Its got an unlocked hexacore, motherbaord, and 4gb of RAM.

          --
          ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
          • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 17 2014, @01:38PM

            by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 17 2014, @01:38PM (#17568)

            That's an interesting looking kit. The kind of thing I'd probably buy if I were currently in the market for a mobo. The same "advanced internet technology" that allows the purchaser to select an extended warranty could presumably be repurposed to select one or two memory... looks like the mobo is only a two memory slot. I have 16 gigs right now, so 2 slots each with 4 gig would not be an "upgrade".

            Right now my main performance limiter would be not having SSD. After that probably video card. After that then I'll start looking for a new mobo, at which point this one will be long obsolete but something similar to it would likely be appealing.

            • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:50AM

              by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:50AM (#17867) Journal

              This is why I start with a kit and then when it comes time to upgrade I get a new board and repurpose the board that came with the kit. My current PC started with an Athlon X2 kit with 2 RAM slots with 1Gb each, I first swapped the board for a newer board with 4 RAM slots (while giving the older board to one of the boys) and then later down the line I swapped the X2 for a Phenom II X4 followed by the Phenom II X6. This way I could start with a really cheap kit and then take my time and keeping an eye out on the sales it keeps the price really low while making sure I'm never without a system.

               

              My final total on this system is less than $600 and has 8Gb of RAM (can hold 16Gb but I really don't see a point in that much RAM ATM), 3Tb of HDD space and an HD7750. If you don't have people to pass them to Craigslist or similar allow you to recoup a large portion of your purchase price thus making the system even cheaper.

              BTW a word of warning...SSDs to this day die WITHOUT WARNING so either have the OS and ONLY the OS so if it dies you can just reimage without loss or have it mirrored with a HDD so you don't end up losing your data. In many ways SSDs are in the same place that HDDs were in the 80s, many huge improvements but stability? Not really there yet.

              --
              ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:16PM

        by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:16PM (#17238) Journal

        Here ya go friend, this is where I get a LOT of the towers I sell..enjoy [tigerdirect.com]. I'd say the best deals ATM are the $120 APU kit which gives you a dual core APU (I've built a couple of these, the GPU is great for HD video acceleration and light gaming and the board will go up to a quad if you want) along with board case and PSU, but if you want a MEAN motor scooter, and I do mean mean, the oldest has one of these hexacores and they just blow through anything he throws at it, the $194 Hexacore Kit [tigerdirect.com] is fucking smoking. Thanks to Turbo its like having TWO CPUs, a 3.3Ghz Hexacore and a 3.9 GHz triple, and the summary is wrong as the board supports 16Gb of RAM not 8Gb.

        So if you want a new PC that kicks some booty without kicking your wallet? You really can't go wrong with AMD Tigerkits. I have been buying from them for years and never had a bit of trouble, in fact the one time they fucked up (one of their kits had paired a CPU with a board that couldn't take it) they not only apologized and sent a board that would take the CPU but they told me to just keep the original board. the system I'm typing this on is a 5 year old Tower I built from a Tigerkit, its had 2 CPU upgrades so far and its been a champ, just purrs like a kitten.

        And for those that haven't used an AMD lately? Quit buying the rigged benchmark bullshit and actually try one, both their mobile and their desktop lines frankly kick some serious ass without beating the shit out of your wallet. Hell go to Tiger and they have AMD quad laptops starting at $350 and after buying a couple for customers I can say those jaguar APUs are kick ass for multimedia and day to day work. needless to say its not gonna play Crysis 3 but I did play some Portal 2 and Torchlight 2 and it was smooth as butter and the battery life is kicking. the only reason i haven't gotten one for myself is frankly my Asus AMD netbook still is humming right along, plays 1080P over HDMI, still gets nearly 4 hours on a 4 year old battery (down from 6 but I rarely need more than 3 hours off mains so who cares) and I just don't see a reason to get a new one when the one i have works fricking great. The AMD systems are really tough and just run and run, hell I have first gen Athlon 64s and Phenom Is still being used in the field and the customers are quite happy with them. So if you haven't given AMD a spin no is the time, I mean how can you beat a fricking hexacore kit for $200?

        --
        ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
        • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday March 17 2014, @02:43AM

          by Reziac (2489) on Monday March 17 2014, @02:43AM (#17353) Homepage

          TigerDirect used to be notorious for ducking out on warranties and such. Have they changed their stripes??

          [Fancy meeting you here! :) ]

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
          • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Monday March 17 2014, @06:09AM

            by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday March 17 2014, @06:09AM (#17421) Journal

            Hi again! And I guess you missed the memo, that was the OLD Tigerdirect, when the previous management ran the company into the ground he got the boot and they restructured...2008 IIRC but don't quote me on that, and since then they have made customer happiness job #1. As I said in another post when they screwed up and sent a kit with a board that wouldn't take the chip? Not only did they rush me out a new (frankly better) board at no cost next day air but they told me to keep the original! Now THAT is service!

            And I haven't had a bit of trouble getting RMAs from the new Tiger...hey you remember a couple years back when Seagate was having all their 1.5Tb drives shit the bed? I got bit by a couple of those, took me less than 5 minutes on live chat to get my RMA. It did take 3 weeks to get the refund but the M in RMA isn't something Tiger has any control over and the second they were processed by Seagate the money was back in my account. I of course could have gotten it faster if I would have agreed to swap but I learnt my lesson and bought some Samsung 2Tb drives that are purring like kittens to this day.

            Let me put it THIS way...every single desktop PC in my family, 3 gamer boxes (mine and both boys), 2 work boxes, as well as 2 laptops, they ALL came from Tiger. Hell I've even started getting tablets from them, not a bit of trouble and the prices are fricking great.

            --
            ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
            • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday March 17 2014, @01:36PM

              by Reziac (2489) on Monday March 17 2014, @01:36PM (#17566) Homepage

              That's great to know -- I'll give them another chance, then!! (I'd not been burned by the old TD, but I knew plenty of folks who had been.) I hadn't heard a word about the death and resurrection, but that had to be the best thing that coulda happened to 'em.

              Living near Los Angeles, I had such good access to parts at wholesale thru various good clone shops, that I hardly ever bothered to look at the online marketers, other than Geeks before they shut their doors to the public (they just do B2B now). Now back in Montana and... well, there ain't nothin' here, other than captive-market pricing. :(

              --
              And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
              • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday March 18 2014, @07:19AM

                by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday March 18 2014, @07:19AM (#17955) Journal

                If you are looking for a super cheap system you can't beat the AMD hexacore/mobo combos at Tiger, Mine has lasted nearly 5 years and still kicks ass to this very day. games, transcoding, hell I've burnt DVDs while transcoding AND playing a FPS and its been smooth as butter, for an upgrade that cost less than $150 as a set? You just can't beat that.

                --
                ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
                • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday March 18 2014, @02:42PM

                  by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @02:42PM (#18106) Homepage

                  Pretty good price, but I'm reluctant to pay money for AMDs. I'll take one if it falls on my head, but I've never been impressed with 'em outside of gaming (which I really don't do, other than DOOM -- I have a 3GHz system on an MB-800 industrial mobo with ISA slots, just for DOOM!!) AMDs run too hot, they're too sensitive to heat (I've seen fried AMDs, I've never seen a fried Intel... and I've seen Intels survive long-term with dead fans and buried in cig sludge and getting hot enough the mobo was *warped* and the bakelite was crumbly), and the AMD mobos don't seem to have the lifespan either (seen lots of deaders, while dead clone-market Intels are rare). Speaking from 10+ years as the hardware dude for the local user group -- I vetted tons [literally] of EOL'd donations, and that made it real clear what survives and what doesn't. You get a different picture at that point than from doing repairs (did that for some years too).

                  And AMD's errata sheet has historically been 3x the size of Intel's, meaning 3x more unfixed bugs in an average CPU. I recall one in particular because a friend spent 6 months chasing it before AMD admitted (well, one of their engineers did, the company never made good) -- what do you mean it doesn't handle a 32bit bus, WTF?? There really wasn't much excuse for that, considering at the time they were just one generation beyond building off Intel's code. More recently, AMD64 was incompatible with some common higher-end nVidia chip (I don't recall which exactly) -- locked up the moment you went above the default resolution. The fix? Replace with an AMD32, or find a lesser vidcard. (Which mightily pissed off the clone-server dealer where I watched this debacle unfold.)

                  TFA seems to say that Intel CPUs for one particular vendor and purpose will be locked, not that all of 'em will be locked. Considering how many wind up in server racks (which is where the real money is) with about half of those destined to run *NIX, OS locking across the board would be corporate suicide.

                  --
                  And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
                  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday March 19 2014, @06:55AM

                    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday March 19 2014, @06:55AM (#18440) Journal

                    Dude that is like saying you won't buy Intel because of the P2 division bug. The first gen Barton Athlons had a defective thermal monitor (which I've seen the exact same bug in C2D based pentiums, only reason you didn't hear more about it was they were used in low end systems with no ability to OC, but block the fan and watch 'em cook) but that was nearly half a decade ago. I frankly don't game much either but honestly you don't have to game to enjoy having 6 real cores.

                    As far as dead boards? Avoid MSI and Foxconn, but those boards are junk on both sides of the fence. For a good cheap board look at the Asrock or Asus boards, just remember to set the Asrock memory manually as it tends to be aggressive on its RAM timings. I've been building and selling AMDs exclusively for nearly half a decade and I haven't seen a single dead one where it wasn't killed by PEBKAC like plugging straight into an outlet and not unplugging during storms, but as long as you don't buy junk (which the junk OEMs have pretty much died out, even the cheapos use solid caps and decent traces now) an AMD will last for years and the money you save will let you have a better overall system.

                    --
                    ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
                    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:33PM

                      by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:33PM (#18529) Homepage

                      Didja know Foxconn makes the huge majority of odds and ends that go into any mobo? :) But yeah, their own-bran mobos have always been shit. If I have a choice I'm rather a Tyan bigot, followed by SuperMicro and perhaps iBase (http://www.ibase.com.tw/mb800.htm)

                      MSI's older Pentium boards were crap, but up about the P3 era they got good -- stable and durable so long as you didn't go with the cheaper models. I haven't seen their current crop... but it wouldn't surprise me if their AMD boards were lower-quality than their Intel boards; I've seen that a lot from various companies across the years (started building these buggers ~1994).

                      That shitty mobo in low-end eMachines was reportedly made by Asus (tho toward the end they actually got decent). And it looked like an Asus, so I tend to believe it. It's building to spec that counts, not so much brand.

                      I'd have to check AMD's errata sheet to see how they're really doing (assuming it's still public, which hasn't always been the case either). But LIS it's historically been 3x the length of Intel's, and that disturbs me, especially having run into unfixed major bugs in flagship products... and I mean fatal bugs you could hardly avoid tripping over with everyday OSs, not minor things most people would never notice.

                      Only reason I'd buy a new mobo again is cuz having moved back to the sticks, salvage isn't so readily available. I think I last bought new in 1998. At least this way I get what I pay for. ;)

                      --
                      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
                      • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Thursday March 20 2014, @12:22AM

                        by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Thursday March 20 2014, @12:22AM (#18737) Journal

                        The way I look at it is this...if a company can't be trusted then they can't be trusted, end of story. Foxconn only makes decent shit for other people because those other people make sure there are riders in the contracts, look at how many tales of defective hardware have ben traced back to them over the years. And as for MSI? They are fucking liars that do zero QA, period. For an example they will list chips released nearly 2 years after a board has been released as compatible when THEY NEVER TESTED IT because ALL they do is look at the watts, PERIOD. You find this out soon enough when their boards say they support the i Series or FX series but you find out it'll never even post, the reason being as late Phenom II and the i Series all have turbo which requires more voltage than the stock watts and their older boards just can't give it the power.

                        As far as the OEMs..they are cheap, don't matter who makes 'em they penny pinch the living fuck out of 'em. Doesn't always make 'em shit, just severely limits what you can do with them but as long as you know that they are okay. The MSI and Asus boards made for HP make just fine office boxes or netboxes, just don't try to add more cores than it came with or turn it into a gaming PC and they are often adequate for your day to day tasks, they generally won't last as long as the mainstream offerings but that usually isn't much of a problem with the average lifespan of a PC being 7 years they are usually able to go 3-6 which is fine for the price.

                        As for the errata...unless you are doing particle simulations or other extreme number crunching (which frankly if that is the case you should be running a workstation chip anyway) then the odds of you running into one of those bugs is about the same as you winning $2500 playing a scratch off ticket, not impossible but highly unlikely. Take the Phenom I bug that was so famous, I bought a ton of those chips, never applied the patch (which would cause a 10% hit in windows) and I never actually saw the bug in action, not once. The same goes for Intel errata, the odds of you hitting the P2 bug was insanely low.

                          BTW true fact, the reason you saw all those burnt Athlon boxes? The first gen Athlons were able to be unlocked by pencil tracing a couple spots on the board and it was simple as hell to change a few reg settings and have Windows "lie" about which chip was in it so unscrupulous dealers would often unlock the Athlons and OC the living hell out of them so they could sell them as premium models for premium prices. I don't know how many systems I got in the shop during that period because "it was acting funny" or "it crashes a lot" only to go into BIOS and find it had as high as a 60% OC. I'd talk to the owner and sure enough they had paid as much as $1500 for a $500 system. Can't blame AMD for shitheads being shitty though and if I got to it in time before the chip was cooked I could reset the clock and they would often last for years.

                        --
                        ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
        • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Monday March 17 2014, @07:52AM

          by SlimmPickens (1056) on Monday March 17 2014, @07:52AM (#17439)

          Here ya go friend

          Thanks, very useful! Tiger has evaded my filter bubble. Those prices are good enough that I can ship CPU's and SSD's to Australia and not care about the warranty.

          The main thing that impresses me about those AMD chips is the full set of virtualization extensions. The efficiency is bad but the price is so good that one of those hexacore kits might just be the first computer bought specifically for my new xen setup. The only other hardware I've specifically bought so far is this [routerboard.com] router that has comprehensive wirelss control (point to multipoint, virtual AP's, tuning) and lots of enterprise features including rudimentry support for openflow. Not bad for $130 list price.

          • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Monday March 17 2014, @01:45PM

            by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday March 17 2014, @01:45PM (#17576) Journal

            Don't buy the power bullshit friend, as AMD and Intel figure their differently so its not comparable. IIRC Intel figures their based on a theoretical load while AMD runs real world tests and bases their numbers on what you will see in the field. I can tell you that my hexacore gets pounded damned near 24/7, when not gaming its transcoding or doing backups and it still runs cool enough that it maxes out at just 128F with a $29 Hyper N520 Coolermaster (Great HSF BTW, fits into nearly any mATX and is VERY quiet, pretty much all I use on my new builds anymore).

            And if you are into VMs? Boy are you gonna be a happy camper, AMD virtualization support is top notch. Hell I have run Linux and XP VMs on my little E350 netbook, thanks to the hardware VM support and large amount of RAM it just purrs and those hexacores make running multiple VMs child's play. Folks wonder why I never mention the octocores but IMHO the hexacores are the sweet spot and the extra $$ for those two cores just don't make for a good deal unless you can come up with enough useful work to keep that many cores fed, not to mention the octocores are hotter and slower than the 95w hexas.

            So enjoy your new gear, I bet once you see how nicely those AMD purr and how nice the Tiger prices are you'll be like me and shop there a lot. BTW just FYI but another nice feature is most AMD boards support ECC RAM so unlike Intel you don't need server boards and chips to get that feature...enjoy!

            --
            ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
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