On Thu, 14 Jan 2016 11:37:56 -0000, Trent .****of wrote:

On Wed, 13 Jan 2016 13:05:47 -0000 "Mr Macaw" wrote in
Message id: :

On Wed, 13 Jan 2016 13:01:40 -0000, Trent .****of wrote:

On Wed, 13 Jan 2016 12:03:30 -0000 "Mr Macaw" wrote in
Message id: :

Just out of interest, how does a hardware bug in a CPU get fixed by a software BIOS update? Isn't the bug a physical misconnection in the circuits?

Microcode updates.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/microcode

So the bug was in the firmware of the CPU, not the physical circuitry?

I've never heard of or done a CPU firmware update. Are they included with motherboard BIOS updates?

Yes, the manufacturer of the MB releases a BIOS update to correct the
issue. For this particular errata, Intel has given the MB manufacturers
the information needed to do this.

I've read in MB BIOS update instructions that it fixes X to do with the CPU, but I always assumed that was a motherboard fault where it didn't work with new types of CPU etc.

--
An optimist thinks this is the best possible world.
A pessimist fears this is true.