[coreboot] microcode updates

[Patrick Georgi]

Am 08.07.2014 20:57, schrieb ron minnich:
> Might work on your x60. Not recommended on more recent chipsets. Yes,
> you might get it to boot. That's almost worse than having it fail.
For a not-so-recent example, some of the later Via processors require a
microcode update lest they hang when you change the processor clock.

Similar non-obvious issues can happen with caches (I think Intel alluded
to potential issues in that general area every now and then, maybe even
on the Core/Core2 things you find in the X60 - I hope they're just being
cautious here), and these issues might not be as prominent - you really
are lucky if your system hangs hard instead of probabilistically
flipping every 200000th bit it processes.

Since we really rely on caches when we enable _Cache_-as-RAM, having
them fully functional is a good thing. Since Microcode usually comes
without a (useful) change log (bad, bad CPU-vendors!), we have to be
cautious here.


Like many computing products, CPUs these days are banana-ware: shipped
still "green", they mature at the customer's.

If possible, apply the newest update you can find as soon as possible.
Since people are so bad with updating their firmware, Linux can do a
second run if necessary.


Patrick

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