Category Archives: CPU

DDL-4 Is A Visually Pleasing Modular CPU

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Today’s CPUs are so advanced that they might as well be indistinguishable from magic, right? Wrong! Fundamentally, modern CPUs can be understood logically like any other technology, it’s just that they’re very fast, very small, and very complex, which makes it hard to get to grips with their inner workings. We’ve come a long way from the dawn of the home computer in the 80s, but what if there was something even simpler again, built in such a way as to be easily understandable? Enter the DDL-4-CPU, courtesy of [Dave’s Dev Lab].

The DDL-4 is a project to build a …read more

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New Spectre-like flaw found in CPUs using speculative execution

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A new flaw that can allow an attacker to obtain access to sensitive information on affected systems has been discovered in modern CPUs. CVE-2018-3639, discovered by independently by Google Project Zero and Microsoft Security Response Center researchers… Continue reading New Spectre-like flaw found in CPUs using speculative execution→

High End PC Gets A Rustic Woodwoking Piece Of Art For A Case.

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As [Matt] from [DIY Perks] was about to assemble a new PC, he decided to take a unique direction when it came to building a case. Despite the appearance of a woodworking piece with weird industrial radiators, there is actually a full-fledged, high-end PC hidden inside.

Those radiators are a pair of almost-the-biggest-you-can-buy heatsinks — one of which has been modified to fit the graphics card. Separating the graphics card’s stock cooling fan unit cut down significantly on noise and works with the stringent space requirements of the build. Those fans however keep other components on the card cool, so …read more

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AMD users running Windows 10 get their Spectre fix

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AMD has released new microcode updates for mitigating variant 2 of the Spectre attack and Microsoft has released an OS update with the mitigation to AMD users running Windows 10. As you might remember, AMD processors were found not to be vulnerable to … Continue reading AMD users running Windows 10 get their Spectre fix→

Universal Chip Analyzer: Test Old CPUs In Seconds

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Collecting old CPUs and firing them up again is all the rage these days, but how do you know if they will work? For many of these ICs, which ceased production decades ago, sorting the good stuff from the defective and counterfeit is a minefield.

Testing old chips is a challenge in itself. Even if you can find the right motherboard, the slim chances of escaping the effect of time on the components (in particular, capacitor and EEPROM degradation) make a reliable test setup hard to come by.

Enter [Samuel], and the Universal Chip Analyzer (UCA). Using an FPGA to …read more

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Intel will not provide Spectre/Meltdown microcode updates for some processor families

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Intel has decided not to provide microcode updates to plug Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities in a number of older processors. According to the last update (April 2, 2018) of the “Microcode Revision Guidance,” Bloomfield, Bloomfield Xeon,… Continue reading Intel will not provide Spectre/Meltdown microcode updates for some processor families→