Red hat issued a vulnerability alert and include Z and Power: https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/speculativeexecution
It provides no details of why. Given the different pipeline architectures I'd like to know why. The fix for Intel et alii appears to be separate address spaces but Z has always had that. -------- Original message -------- From: John McKown <[email protected]> Date: 1/4/18 09:14 (GMT-05:00) To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LINUX-390] Meltdown/Spectre; Linux on z affected? On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 7:36 AM, Guest, Darren <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > Not sure if people have seen that attached article or heard of the 'intel' > chip issues from elsewhere: > https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/ > > The 'fix' for meltdown (at least) is apparently to change the Linux kernel > which will potentially affect performance. I'm pretty sure that zSeries > isn't affected by the issue (is it?), but if the Linux Kernel is changed, > are we likely to see a performance hit on Linux running on zSeries as well > (even though we don't need the fix)? > > Best case scenario, can I tell my management that these won't affect Linux > on z? > I am not any kind of Linux internals wizzard. But this exploit takes advantage of a _HARDWARD_ flaw in the Intel CPU. Linux on z does not run on an _Intel_ chip. The story, that I've read at least, specifically mentions that most AMD chips are not affected; nor are ARM chips. So why would the z chip? Of course, management usually being composed of hardware illiterate "liberal arts" majors, perhaps it would be a good idea for IBM to explicitly announce to the work that this flaw does not affect the IBMZ machines. > > > Cheers, > > Darren > > Darren Guest > > First Aider > Senior Fire Executive > Senior Systems Engineer > Mainframe OS > Global Technology Services, Experian UK > -- I have a theory that it's impossible to prove anything, but I can't prove it. Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on Linux on System z, visit http://wiki.linuxvm.org/
