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Important Security Question???

Started by tjohnson, 01:27, 11 January 18

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tjohnson

I read about Spectre and Meltdown in the IT press and I'm really worried about the risk to my CPC, I seem to recall the processor in the CPC is related to the Intel 8080, should I be worried about the security risk and does anyone know how much performance I'm likely to lose if and when Amstrad release a patch to fix the vulnerabilities.......please help.

Shaun M. Neary

Currently playing on: 2xCPC464, 1xCPC6128, 1x464Plus, 1x6128Plus, 2xGX4000. M4 board, ZMem 1MB and still forever playing Bruce Lee.
No cheats, snapshots or emulation. I play my games as they're intended to be played. What about you?

Audronic

Is it April the First already.


Hmmmmmmm


Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

Bryce

Quote from: tjohnson on 01:27, 11 January 18
I read about Spectre and Meltdown in the IT press and I'm really worried about the risk to my CPC, I seem to recall the processor in the CPC is related to the Intel 8080, should I be worried about the security risk and does anyone know how much performance I'm likely to lose if and when Amstrad release a patch to fix the vulnerabilities.......please help.

Unfortunately it seems that the patch will cause disks to load as slow as tapes. I've been using a C64 with a 1541 for the last week to get used to this new reality. I'm considering re-designing my CPC with an overclocked 6502.

Bryce.

Shaun M. Neary

Quote from: Bryce on 09:51, 11 January 18
Unfortunately it seems that the patch will cause disks to load as slow as tapes. I've been using a C64 with a 1541 for the last week to get used to this new reality. I'm considering re-designing my CPC with an overclocked 6502.

Bryce.


A C64 with a 1541?! You poor thing, I could w**k faster than that!
Currently playing on: 2xCPC464, 1xCPC6128, 1x464Plus, 1x6128Plus, 2xGX4000. M4 board, ZMem 1MB and still forever playing Bruce Lee.
No cheats, snapshots or emulation. I play my games as they're intended to be played. What about you?

Bryce

Quote from: Shaun M. Neary on 10:05, 11 January 18

A C64 with a 1541?! You poor thing, I could w**k faster than that!

I really hope that those two stars stand for "al" :D

Bryce.

Audronic

Mine only Take a " Jiffy "


Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

Shaun M. Neary

Quote from: Bryce on 10:30, 11 January 18
I really hope that those two stars stand for "al" :D

Bryce.


We're both from Dublin... so you can probably stab a wild guess...
Currently playing on: 2xCPC464, 1xCPC6128, 1x464Plus, 1x6128Plus, 2xGX4000. M4 board, ZMem 1MB and still forever playing Bruce Lee.
No cheats, snapshots or emulation. I play my games as they're intended to be played. What about you?

00WReX

I always knew that the speculative execution on the Z80 would come back to bite us  :doh:
The CPC in Australia...
Awa - CPCWiki

GUNHED

Quote from: tjohnson on 01:27, 11 January 18
I read about Spectre and Meltdown in the IT press and I'm really worried about the risk to my CPC, I seem to recall the processor in the CPC is related to the Intel 8080, should I be worried about the security risk and does anyone know how much performance I'm likely to lose if and when Amstrad release a patch to fix the vulnerabilities.......please help.

Very true, the Z80 took this over from the 8080 CPU for compatibility reasons. But up to now nobody does use that security problem for bad things imho.

The new SymbOS 3.1 has such a patch, but only for the CPC's and MSX, I don't know for the Enterprise.

CP/M does use a complete different way, very 8080 like, and they had a work around from the beginning.

Well, it's unlikely that FutureSoft will release a patch for FutureOS else it wouldn't be as quick in disc management. Good to know: Up to now there is only one known CPC virus, which targets the ROM-RAM-Box and similar devices, it actually does change the DOS ROM.

However, the regular CPC-OS is very prone to that problem in general.

Sorry, can't help more at the moment.
http://futureos.de --> Get the revolutionary FutureOS (Update: 2023.11.30)
http://futureos.cpc-live.com/files/LambdaSpeak_RSX_by_TFM.zip --> Get the RSX-ROM for LambdaSpeak :-) (Updated: 2021.12.26)

VincentGR

Quote from: Bryce on 09:51, 11 January 18I'm considering re-designing my CPC with an overclocked 6502.

Bryce.


Someone tried that in the past and he almost went nuts...

Shaun M. Neary

Quote from: VincentGR on 19:27, 11 January 18

Someone tried that in the past and he almost went nuts...


Malc Jennings?  :laugh:
Currently playing on: 2xCPC464, 1xCPC6128, 1x464Plus, 1x6128Plus, 2xGX4000. M4 board, ZMem 1MB and still forever playing Bruce Lee.
No cheats, snapshots or emulation. I play my games as they're intended to be played. What about you?


Gryzor

That's the usual FUD shite we see online.


As long as your CPC doesn't go online, you just don't care. If you do go online, just do a hard reset after logging into some site or the other.


Do NOT install the patch, preliminary benchmarks from server farms show a decrease in overscan demos of 40+%.

tjohnson

Thanks guys, I'm feeling a little bit more reassured, I've been trying to get through to the CPC support line but it keeps ringing out, I'm guessing they are inundated with worried owners.  I'll keep trying and let you know the response.

Gryzor

I think the worries started when Intel put out that release stating that their processors, along with AMD's and Zilog's, were affected. AMD was furious, but Zilog just didn't say anything, sadly.

VincentGR

Me needs a patch at github, NOW!

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