linux-kernel - Bricked x86 CPU with software?

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Message-ID: <5A4D7986.2138.FDC590CF@tim.ml.ipcopper.com>
Date:   Wed, 03 Jan 2018 16:47:02 -0800
From:   "Tim Mouraveiko" <tim.ml@...opper.com>
To:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Bricked x86 CPU with software?

Hi,

In all my years of extensive experience writing drivers and kernels, I never came across a situation 
where you could brick an x86 CPU. Not until recently, when I was working on debugging a piece of 
code and I bricked an Intel CPU. I am not talking about an experimental motherboard or anything 
exotic or an electrical issue where the CPU got fried, but before the software code execution the CPU 
was fine and then it´s dead. There were signs that something was not right, that the code was causing 
unusual behavior, which is what I was debugging.

Has anyone else ever experienced a bricked CPU after executing software code? I just wanted to get 
input from the community to see if anyone had had any experience like that, since it seems rather 
unusual to me.

Tim