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ChojinDSL
l33t
Joined: 07 Jul 2003
Posts: 784
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 Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:36 pm Post subject: What is microcode for? Do you use it? |
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I just recently came across a gentoo related website with some tips and tricks regarding gentoo and there was some mention of microcode. I researched a bit more. Basically its like a firmware for the cpu or something like that. But I was wondering if there was any specific reason to use or not to use it.
I have a Intel Core 2 Quad Q660 Quad Core CPU. Would I benefit from having an updated microcode? Ist ist just for fixing bugs or does it improve speed? Does everyone use it and is simply quiet about it, or is it a rarely needed feature? |
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Nerevar
l33t
Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 720
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| Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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| A long time ago I updated a CD-ROM drives microcode to fix a bug with reading a certain type of media. You can look at it like a BIOS update. It can add support for new features or fix bugs. The big downside is that typically if anything goes wrong during the update, you've just lost that device. |
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timeBandit
Bodhisattva
Joined: 31 Dec 2004
Posts: 2719
Location: here, there or in transit
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:52 am Post subject: |
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For the most part, CPU microcode updates allow the manufacturer to correct esoteric (or even egregious) bugs without the expense of a recall. See this post for a good explanation with links to more resources and read the rest of the thread for Gentoo-specific information.
| DarrenSmith wrote: | | The big downside is that typically if anything goes wrong during the update, you've just lost that device. |
There's no risk of this with an Intel CPU microcode update. The update cannot be written back to the CPU ROM, it is stored in volatile memory and must be re-applied at every boot.
Moved from Kernel & Hardware to Duplicate Threads.
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