linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] x86, microcode, AMD: Add support for family 16h processors

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Date:	Sat, 17 Nov 2012 13:29:19 -0200
From:	Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@....eng.br>
To:	Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>, Gene Heskett <gheskett@...v.com>,
	Boris Ostrovsky <boris.ostrovsky@....com>, hpa@...or.com,
	mingo@...e.hu, tglx@...utronix.de,
	herrmann.der.user@...glemail.com, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86, microcode, AMD: Add support for family 16h
 processors

On Sat, 17 Nov 2012, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 06:35:17PM -0500, Boris Ostrovsky wrote:
> > One possibility is that BIOS already incorporated all patches (which
> > typically is the case) and so the driver doesn't have to do anything.
> 
> /proc/cpuinfo contains ucode version and the processor's f/m/s, which
> is enough information to tell us whether your old phenom needs ucode
> patching.

Maybe, however F/M/S information is incomplete, not to mention trying to
rebuild the proper processor signature from it is anything but
forward-proof.  For Intel, it is also useless, you also need the processor
flags...

If /proc/cpuinfo is to be useful for microcode purposes, it should add a
microcode signature line, with CPUID(1).EAX, and on Intel processors, also a
second parameter with the processor flags mask (I don't know if AMD needs
something else other than CPUID(1).EAX).

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh
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