Reading everyone's comments, knowing nothing about this stuff, I had a random question:
Does all this create an opportunity for another chip line (architecture) to capture some of the server market?
I'm thinking specifically of SPARC. How far behind is SPARC now? A decade? Is that gap surmountable?
Given that 1) both AMD and Intel have issues, and 2) the commentariat have written the variety of ARMs are a mess too, and 3) maybe the people who care (those with server farms) will mitigate risks by adding a completely different architecture to the mix (prefer hetero vs mono culture).
However, I believe Solaris uses separate address spaces for user and kernel on SPARC. So that should avoid meltdown at least.
Also, it is unclear whether it allows speculation beyond privilege boundaries and it is also unclear whether ordering semantics for memory are different enough to mitigate somewhat.
I wish I still had access to modern sparc hardware to find out.
While it’s best to assume everything is vulnerable unless proven otherwise I’d really like to see a thorough evaluation.
Does all this create an opportunity for another chip line (architecture) to capture some of the server market?
I'm thinking specifically of SPARC. How far behind is SPARC now? A decade? Is that gap surmountable?
Given that 1) both AMD and Intel have issues, and 2) the commentariat have written the variety of ARMs are a mess too, and 3) maybe the people who care (those with server farms) will mitigate risks by adding a completely different architecture to the mix (prefer hetero vs mono culture).
Just curious.