> On Tue, 17 Nov 1998, Alan Cox wrote:
>
> > Intel don't document the stuff, but what is documented should reassure
> > you - the 'microcode' update is lost when the CPU is reset
>
> For a minute there I was pondering whether to write the world's first
> microvirus...
That's by far not the first microcode programmable CPU. TI (?) was offering
model in the late 80's, VAX were loading their microcode since eternities
from ROMs to SRAMs during the reset phase. I even have a hardcopy of the
source code of the Perkin-Elmer 7/32's CPU still on my bookshelf. At that
time microcode programming was pretty much like programming a primitive
RISC CPU without multiply, divide etc. because that stuff was supposed to
be implemented in microcode, no real problem and not a single workaround for
a hardware bug. I think there were others on the market which were also
offering microcode programmable processors.
Ralf
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