Re: [RFC] Microcode Update Driver for AMD K8 CPUs

[Danny van Dyk]

richard.brunner@xxxxxxx schrieb:
>>Danny van Dyk <kugelfang@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>>I recently found some piece of code [1] to perform a microcode update
>>>on AMD's K8 CPUs. It included some update blocks hardcoded into the
>>>module.
>>Several people found this code (including me). But I don't think
>>it's a good idea right now to merge because it is better to leave
>>these things to the BIOS. It's unlikely that AMD will regularly
>>release "open" microcode updates anyways, and moving them
>>between BIOSes seems a bit dangerous to me (often you likely
>>need to change some magic MSRs too or you could have some
>>side effects). Overall it seems to be too dangerous to
>>do in a standard kernel.
>>Also I suspect the driver won't work very well on SMP.
>>-Andi
> As usual, Andi is absolutely correct.
> 	-Rich Brunner, AMD Fellow

Sigh. Well, that makes two *strong* votes against it.
Nevertheless, it's been a nice experience to work on that code.

Rich: Your CPUs are great ;-)

Andi: Can you explain to me, why you think that the module would not
work on SMP ? I don't know if this is still on topic: should we discuss
this off-list ? Vielleicht auf Deutsch *G ?

Danny

--
Danny van Dyk
Gentoo/AMD64 Developer
kugelfang@xxxxxxxxxx
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