Intel pushes out Spectre microcode patch to fix 6th, 7th and 8th-gen CPUs

Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake microprocessors all covered by new Intel Spectre patch - Broadwell, Haswell, Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge will have to wait

Intel has released new patches to mitigate the risks of the Spectre varient 2 flaw, covering its 6th, 7th and 8th-generation CPUs - Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake microprocessors.

The patches will be distributed to OEMs - PC and server makers - who will provide firmware updates for download.

The latest Spectre-mitigating updates from Intel have passed "extensive testing by customers and industry partners to ensure the updated versions are ready for production", according to Intel's Navin Shenoy.

The chipmaker was forced to advise its customers to not to use the initial patch it rushed out to exorcise the Spectre flaw. The fix was caused some machines to randomly reboot, putting data and computer health at risk.

Intel initially said the reboots were only occurring on Broadwell and Haswell processors, but later admitted its fix was also causing borkage on Skylake and Kaby Lake chips.

The fix was described by Linux creator Linus Torvalds as "garbage".

Intel's new, hopefully-less-buggy updates have been shipped to the firm's hardware partners, and some have already begun passing them on to customers.

"We have now released production microcode updates to our OEM customers and partners for Kaby Lake- and Coffee Lake-based platforms, plus additional Skylake-based platforms," Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group," wrote in a blog post.

"This represents our 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel Core product lines as well as our latest Intel Core X-series processor family."

In an updated patch roadmap, Intel indicates that beta patches for Broadwell, Haswell, Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-based systems are in the works.

Intel earlier this week revealed that it has been hit with a total of 32 lawsuits so far over the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities.

"As of February 15, 2018, 30 customer class action lawsuits and two securities class action lawsuits have been filed," explained Intel in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

Intel is being sued by both customers, who are looking to squeeze the chipmaker for "monetary damages and equitable relief", and securities lawsuits seeking action against Intel and its top brass.

The latter alleges that Intel "violated securities laws by making statements about its products and internal controls that were revealed to be false or misleading by the disclosure of the security vulnerabilities".