How will it affect the stock price? Is it good for AMD? http://www.bit-tech.net/news/tech/cpus/intel-cpus-hit-by-major-hardware-security-flaw/1/ "A serious hardware security flaw in Intel processors is being actively patched in software, but with warnings that its implementation can result in a performance loss of between five and 30 percent depending on workload." "For Intel, the security flaw is a major headache: The issue appears to affect every Intel part around, from top-end server chips - where the security impact is the greatest but where the performance loss will also be hardest felt - through to embedded parts. For AMD, the news could be a welcome bonus: While the current release of the Linux patch implements the isolation feature on all x86 and x86-64 processors regardless of vendor, AMD chips have been confirmed as not vulnerable to the issue with a patch being released to disable the workaround and thus restore performance on all AMD processors."
Well, INTC is down -2.4% when the whole market is in rally mode... Meh, the market said... Oh yeah, your info is simply NOT TRUE: "How do I know if my PC is at risk? Short answer: It is. There isn’t any concrete data yet, but speculation is that the bug affects all Intel x86 CPUs produced over the past 10 years, regardless of the OS you’re running or whether you have a desktop or laptop. There are some reports that say newer Intel CPUs are less impacted than older ones, but the full extent is unclear." https://www.pcworld.com/article/324...cpu-kernel-bug-faq-how-it-affects-pc-mac.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ter-rival-intel-said-to-reveal-processor-flaw It is one of the largest blunders I can recall. 12 years lineup affected, penalties, lawsuits will follow. Most likely they knew about the flaw for ~ 2 months. On top of that the CEO sold all the shares he could in December.
Great news for those of us who do not need a connected box - hopefully I can buy an unpatched version for cheaper
So the CEO sold 10 times his usual stock selling back in November. In fact he sold the maximum he is allowed (he has to keep 250K stocks). One argument is that he isn't afraid of an insider trading charge because he plays balls with US government agencies, thus he is protected from prosecution. (unlike Joseph Nacchio of Qwest) Another is that this was a chip feature, not a bug. "Google told Intel of the issue in June, and the CEO set up a divestiture program in October, and sold in November, with the fix and disclosure of the issue planned for mid January. Also Spectre is waaay more of a problem than Meltdown is since Spectre cant be fixed with software." If you are a bit confused: "There are two exploits. Meltdown and Spectre. Meltdown only affects Intel. Spectre affects just about every CPU on the market. (AMD, ARM etc) The fix that is being pushed to Windows/Linux is for Meltdown. Meltdown already has people actively exploiting it in demos, so it's a priority to be fixed since it's just a gaping security hole. Spectre is much more difficult to exploit and patch, so will probably happen over the coming weeks."