it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be uploaded to
Intel IA32 processors. (Pentium Pro, PII, PIII, Pentium 4, Celeron, Xeon etc -
all P6 and above, which does NOT include pentium classics). It also supports
processors of the x86_64 architecture.
it signals the kernel driver to release any buffers it may hold
The microcode update is volatile and needs to be uploaded on each system
boot i.e. it doesn't reflash your cpu permanently, reboot and it reverts
back to the old microcode.
*** Intel are now distributing the microcode to the wider community ***
A lot has happened in the last 7 years, and now with more OSs and CPUs to
support Intel have decided to make their microcode datafiles available for
general download on their main Download center and as there isn't any point in
multiple points of distribution we'll not be making updated datafiles available
anymore!
To get the datafile, you now have to go to http://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx
select processors, select the CPU you're interested in, go to Linux as the OS and download from
there. You can setup an RSS feed if you're interested too.
Anyway, there you go!
-Simon
FAQ
Q. is there a changelog for the microcode?
A. No, if Intel change their minds and release it we'll post it here.
Q. what eratta are fixed with microcode version X?
A. see the first question....
Q. ....AMD or any non-Intel processors?
A. This driver is designed for Intel IA32 microprocessors only, it will not work
with AMD or any other non-Intel processors as they don't support microcode
updates or they support it in a manner different from Intel's specs.
I can't see much point in rerolling a tarball when only the data is changing! If by some miracle your Linux distribution doesn't have the utility, download one below and update the data file by hand (it's trivial)
The (S)RPM packages were removed from the website - the RPM packages can now
be built directly from the tar.gz file. It's easy and this avoids the
portability problems of rpm v3 and v4, it should work on upgraded RedHat and
SuSE distributions.
"rpm -ta microcode_ctl-x.xx.tar.gz"
or on more recent machines
"rpmbuild -ta microcode_ctl-x.xx.tar.gz"
The RPM and SRPM will be placed in the default location for your system,
it's printed as rpm finishes (e.g. RedHat it's /usr/src/redhat/*RPMS/
and SuSE is /usr/src/packages/*RPMS/)
Debian Packages
Francisco Javier Jimenez Gomez <frajigo@inf.upv.es>
sent me some patches for debian unstable 3.1, here's an uber
patch in unified diff against TOT
debian-unstable.patch