Intel has redesigned its next generation upcoming processors – the 8th generation Xeon and Core processor chips to reduce the risks associated with the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities.
Following the news about Meltdown and Spectre, Intel had created a new internal security group called Intel Product Assurance and Security to handle the matter and to ensure that security and integrity is ensured to the customers.
The new chips will have the fixes in addition to the already issued software updates and will now patch all vulnerable products from Intel that have been launched in the last five years. The new changes to the hardware will protect against attacks from Variants 2 and 3, while Variant 1 attacks can be addressed with software updates.
Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich explained in a blog post that Intel has made changes to hardware design of its processors “to introduce new levels of protection through partitioning. Think of this partitioning as additional protective walls between applications and user privilege levels to create an obstacle for bad actors.”
The chipmaker will continue to release software updates to completely mitigate the vulnerability at software level.
“With these updates now available, I encourage everyone to make sure they are always keeping their systems up-to-date. It’s one of the easiest ways to stay protected,” wrote Brain Krzanich.
The next generation chips by Intel, Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Cascade Lake) and 8th Generation Intel Core processors, are the first to include these changes. These processors are expected to be available in the second half of 2018.
