Intel has been busy fire-fighting the Meltdown and Spectre bugs throughout January, and the firm’s latest step in its uphill PR battle is to clarify that new chips which are bulletproof to the vulnerabilities will start to turn up later in 2018.
This information was imparted by the CEO of Intel, Brian Krzanich himself, in an earnings call to investors following the revelation of the company’s latest financial results.
As Hexus reports, Krzanich said that Intel was still ‘working around the clock’ on patches to mitigate Meltdown and Spectre, but that software fixes obviously aren’t enough in terms of looking to the future, and that changes in the architecture of upcoming CPUs are underway to defend against the bugs on a fundamental level.
Krzanich said: “We’re working to incorporate silicon-based changes to future products that will directly address the Spectre and Meltdown threats in hardware. And those products will begin appearing later this year.”
This is nothing less than you would hope, really, but it’s still positive news to hear that next-gen chips will (hopefully) soon have protection baked in.
For the latest on how to protect yourself from Spectre and Meltdown, read our comprehensive guide.
Facing flak
Intel is currently facing a barrage of criticism from all quarters – including class-action lawsuits, and accusations of possible mishandling of the embargo regarding disclosure of the bugs.
And it really hasn’t helped matters that the firm’s patches have been found to cause instability with some processors. Indeed, Intel even recommended against installing its own patches earlier this week.
Despite all this, Intel’s fiscal results for Q4 2017 showed record revenue – up 8% year-on-year – with revenue for the full year growing 9% and reaching $62.8 billion (around £44 billion, AU$78 billion), another record.
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