TechLife Australia – September 2019

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CHIPMAKER INTEL, WHICH likely built the
processor at the heart of your PC, can’t catch a
break. After word of two potential flaws with its
processors came out last year – and the
company’s only fix, at least for one of them,
caused said processors to run more slowly – it’s
been hit by another in the form of Zombieload.
To be clear, these aren’t viruses, but they are
flaws in the way the
increasingly tiny
components in processors
are laid out and
constructed, enabling them
to be exploited and
overloaded by malware
creators, and potentially to
be used to steal your
personal data.

INTEL FATIQUE
A fix for Zombieload has
already been worked on and has been released
to certain machines. Unfortunately, it appears
to slow down computers in the same way as
previous fixes; when the problem lies in
immutable hardware, rather than easily
rewritten software, there’s often little other
choice. Understandably, the industry is
beginning to get tired of Intel, particularly
seeing as the hardware designs of rival AMD

[ JUST THE FACTS, PLEASE ]

Processor security flaws

FIRST MELTDOWN, THEN SPECTRE, NOW ZOMBIELOAD. JUST

WHAT IS WRONG WITH CPU INSIDE YOUR COMPUTER?

DI

SCO

VER

PROCESSOR SECURITY FLAW

S

don’t appear to share the same flaws. Apple,

which uses Intel processors in its Macs and

MacBooks, is reportedly so fed up with Intel

(which has also been impacted by processor

shortages) that it is considering building

its own processors for future devices.

So what can Intel do, beyond clumsy

fixes which make our PCs more sluggish?

Obviously, future

processors will be designed

to mitigate these security

flaws. We also know that it

is working with major PC

manufacturers and tech

companies like Dell,

Microsoft and Google on its

Athena project, which is set

to outline the design of the

next generation of PCs,

including features like

all-day battery life, 5G

networking, and instant switch-on.

Intel then faces multiple threats, as well

as opportunities: from competitors like AMD

and Qualcomm (which is surging in mobile

processors and is developing chips for

low-cost, low-power PCs); to Apple’s own chip

ambitions, plus the flaws in its own past

processors. Now’s the time for Intel to get on

the front foot – and fast.

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THE 60-SECOND QUIZ

PENSATTHEREADY,YOURTIMESTARTSNOW!

Answers 1A 2A 3B 4C 5B 6A

01 In the traditional Windows logo,

which colour is in the top left?

A Red

B Purple

CBlue

02 In which US state are Microsoft’s

Redmond headquarters?

A Washington

B California

C Nevada

03 Which of these has not acted as Microsoft

CEO?

A Steve Ballmer

B Mark Zuckerberg

CSatyaNadella

04 What is Bill Gates’ current role at

the company?

A President

B Chairman

C Technical Advisor

05 What was Microsoft’s first PC

operating system?

A MS-DOS

B Xenix

CWindows1.0

06 Microsoft once sponsored Finland’s

national team in which sport?

A Basketball

B Curling

C Handball

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