News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Intel Microcode Decryptor by sabas123 on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @02:09PM (#32155697)
IIRC IME also does a lot of core functionality like power regulation. Unlike many in this thread probably think, it does provide a lot of core functionality that you probably don't want removed.
Re:Intel Microcode Decryptor by salawat on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @12:22PM (#32168051)
The contention, from the User standpoint, however, is the network stack, potential to phone home, and the unrestricted access to the global machine state, combined with the fact, it is not documented or disclosed.

It's one thing to have that and be up front and open on it. Get secretive, and you're creating a massive source of unknown unknowns for everyone involved.

And like it or not, if you won't/can't be transparent about it, either

  A) It'd take too long to document, which suggests there may be room for simplification
  B) you're doing something that if it saw the light of day, would cause outrage, likely because you shouldn't be doing it
  C) You're holding back the state-of-the-art for the sake of securing a revenue stream.
None of these inspires a excess of confidence/trust.
Re:Intel Microcode Decryptor by bogomipz on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @10:14PM (#32160552)
Interesting. So IME handles dynamic voltage and frequency scaling(DVFS) or cores then?
Re:Intel Microcode Decryptor by ta988 on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @11:07PM (#32160894)
Thermal management, power gating, scheduling... It does a lot.