Intel CEO Brian Krzanich releases details of new CPU architecture that will be innoculated against Meltdown and Spectre

Architectural adjustments will start with forthcoming Cascade Lake and its 8th-generation Intel Core processors

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has released details about how the company plans to expunge the Meltdown and Spectre CPU security flaws from future microprocessors.

The plans were unveiled by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in a blog post on Thursday, which he claimed would introduce on-silicon mitigations against both Variant 2 (Meltdown) and Spectre Variant 3.

These hardware changes, which won't be capable of mitigating Spectre v1, will see the implementation of a new partitioning system that improves both process and privilege-level separation.

"Think of this partitioning as additional 'protective walls' between applications and user privilege levels to create an obstacle for bad actors," Krzanich wrote.

"As we bring these new products to market, ensuring that they deliver the performance improvements people expect from us is critical", he added. "Our goal is to offer not only the best performance, but also the best secure performance."

Intel's next-generation Xeon processors (Cascade Lake) will include the new partitioning, alongside 8th-generation Intel Core processors that ship in the second half of 2018.

While Krzanich remained tight-lipped regarding the technical details of the new hardware-based fixes yet, he was keen to announce that Intel has made firmware updates available for 100 per cent of its products launched in the last five years.

This milestone comes just days after Microsoft announced that it would help to distribute Intel's firmware updates to protect Windows 10 systems against the Spectre CPU vulnerability, with many having been waiting for an OEM fix since the flaw was first disclosed in January.

"But again, our work is not done," Krzanich added. "This is not a singular event; it is a long-term commitment. One that we take very seriously.

"Customer-first urgency, transparent and timely communications, and ongoing security assurance. This is our pledge and it's what you can count on from me, and from all of Intel."