And the fixes for it are expected to introduce a performance penalty of up to 50%.
As reported by Phoronix on the Linux side of things:
Of course, with Linux being open source, fixes have already been committed and mainlined into the upcoming kernel 4.15. The article claims a performance penalty of up to 30%, but Phoronix's benchmark on the kernel shows more than 50% I/O penalty on a CoffeeLake:
It will be interesting to see when Windows and macOS will receive their respective kernel patches and the extent of the performance penalty introduced there.
Article source: https://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=25767
Also interesting to note: the kernel developers are treating all x86 processors as being affected:
As reported by Phoronix on the Linux side of things:
Phoronix said:Over the past day you've likely heard lots of hysteria about a yet-to-be-fully-disclosed vulnerability that appears to affect at least several generations of Intel CPUs and affects not only Linux but also Windows and macOS. The Intel CPU issue comes down to leaking information about the kernel memory to user-space, but the full scope isn't public yet until the bug's embargo, but it's expected to be a doozy in the data center / cloud deployments...*snip*...The software fix for this Intel CPU problem for Linux/Windows/macOS is expected to introduce a performance penalty and reports are anywhere from 5% to 30%.
Of course, with Linux being open source, fixes have already been committed and mainlined into the upcoming kernel 4.15. The article claims a performance penalty of up to 30%, but Phoronix's benchmark on the kernel shows more than 50% I/O penalty on a CoffeeLake:
It will be interesting to see when Windows and macOS will receive their respective kernel patches and the extent of the performance penalty introduced there.
Article source: https://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=25767
Also interesting to note: the kernel developers are treating all x86 processors as being affected:
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