Intel confirms Skylake crash erratum

[harhar]

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Intel has confirmed an in-the-wild erratum affecting its latest Skylake processor architecture and causing hangs during certain computationally-intensive operations, with its OEM partners to roll out a hotfix by way of BIOS update sharpish.


Errata in semiconductors are common: by the time the chip is ready for testing, the design is baked in and cannot be changed - meaning anything discovered can only be fixed in the next design iteration. Increased use of simulation has reduced the number of serious flaws that make it into production, but each release of any sufficiently complicated chip brings with it a list of errata that have been noted and need to be worked around in software. For Intel, its most famous was the FDIV bug in which the company's Pentium processors would occasionally return the wrong result in floating-point operations - a flaw which, despite the company's downplaying of its severity, led to a $475 million recall programme.


Intel's Skylake architecture is far removed from the old Pentium, but the company has once again let a breaking bug hit shipping parts. Users of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search began reporting problems on the forum back in November last year, claiming that the Prime95 software would crash on certain systems. Investigations began to narrow down the problem, and eventually found that only one processor family was affected: Intel's Skylake. Narrowed down, the problem was reported to Intel.


The company has now confirmed that the flaw spotted by the Mersenne hunters is indeed genuine and tied to changes in the Skylake architecture, but as with the FDIV bug before it is claiming the flaw is far from serious. 'This issue only occurs under certain complex workload conditions, like those that may be encountered when running applications like Prime95,' a company representative confirmed in reply to the support thread. 'In those cases, the processor may hang or cause unpredictable system behaviour. Intel has identified and released a fix and is working with external business partners to get the fix deployed through BIOS.'


By issuing a microcode update via the BIOS, Intel should be able to avoid a product recall - just as it attempted to do by offering software-based workarounds for the original FDIV bug, only caving in and recalling the faulty processors in the face of major consumer and media backlash. When installed in a system with a BIOS featuring the fix, the erratum should be resolved independent of any client software including operating system. Thus far, no manufacturers have come forward to state when they will release BIOS updates including Intel's workaround for the flaw.

Source:

[lloyd_joy]

for normal users, dili ni mabantayan gawas mag gamit sa Prime95 during stress testing kun mag OC during stability testing... mao man ang reklamo... kun ang apps mo gamit ug AVX extension during computation, paksit ang Skylake ani... since wala ma'y recall an gihimo ang Intel, basin ma fix ra ni sa BIOS updates... intel is doing a damage control here...

if mo hagtos bisan naka perform na'g BIOS update, aw, recall galore gyud ni... but most likely, ang recall ani kay ang naa sa intensive application like the scientific, engineering, medical and statistical computation work loads sa rigs... and in most cases, sa mga branded PCs... sa DIY level, gawas siguro, pronounce gyud kaayo ang flaw then, that's the time apil ang mga consumer level rigs...


dugaya pud pagawas sa AMD sa ilahang new breed of enthusiast level CPUs woi para naa ta'y ma pili-an...

[RayGunz]

perhaps this is one of the reasons why i dont immediately jump on "the latest". even now im still with windows 7, still im skeptical with windows 10. i always choose a product that has proven itself in the track, like a span of a year or two.

[sioti49]

mayta we can see amd rise to another level napud para maka barato ta

[backstabbd88]

unsa na diay balita sa amd zen?

[Sempron Guy]

Zen Q4 2016, the APUs Q1 2017

[harhar]

unsa na diay balita sa amd zen?

OT:

[lloyd_joy]

OT...

inig pagawas sa AMD sa Zen, lain napud ang ipagawas sa Intel... tungas kaayo's AMD gyud ni. hope they can capture again the top spot in terms of "Price to Performance" and "Power to Performance" ratio...

AMD ditched out their CMT and adopted again the SMT for fast processing. they are now following the foot steps of Intel on this. kay proven man na inferior gyud ang performance sa CMT nila na gi implement nila's Bulldozer (FX series)...

personally, i'm excited on AMD's Zen...


if the performance jump from their current CPU and APU offerings would be a big leap... like 45 % performance increase as minimum when compared to the current offering... i'll jump ship on my next new platform build... ehehehehe... dako-ag requirement nako gyud... para sa akoa, mao ni ang target nko para mag upgrade on both CPU and GPU... para pinug-anay sa "HW performance to Cash Outlay" kay wla gipamunit ang money... hehehe..




OnT:

sa mga naka Skylake dha na nag OC then padagan ug Prime95 para stability check, unsa'y na experience ninyo dha? kun wla mo'y nabantayan, basin kulang ang number of hrs sa stress testing na inyohang ginahimo... anyhow, nice unta kun naa'y mag share pud diri sa ilahang personal experience ani... naa naman gyu'y namalit aning Skylake "K" variant CPUs then gi OC...

[bim27142]

basin bulldozer part 2 na pud ng Zen hap?! hahahaha, so much hype and anticipation, dismal outcome...

[lloyd_joy]

basin bulldozer part 2 na pud ng Zen hap?! hahahaha, so much hype and anticipation, dismal outcome...

mao lagi, lami ra ba kaayo ang write up sa AMD on its Bulldozer before... maayo kaayo ni'ng pang kusi-on ang mga lapa2x nila... but, their products (CPUs and APUs in particular for this discussion) are still good though and I'm one of their satisfied Customer... wla lang maka abot sa ilahang gi promise na performance level labi na ang enthusiast level CPUs (FX series)... pero, sa mga OC'ing crowd that pursue the GHz numbers (number game), AMD is the king and 2nd to none...

CPU Frequency overclocking records @ HWBOT



anyhow, nganong mingaw man ang mga naka Skylake? wla man sila mag comment diri... naka experience ba sila'g problema or wla ra ba... share pud intawon mo peeps...

perhaps, nakuyawan ba kaha? dako ra ba ug gasto... hhmmmppp... hehehe... so, share... share... share...