"A fundamental design flaw in Intel's processor chips has forced a significant redesign of the Linux and Windows kernels to defang the chip-level security bug.
 
Programmers are scrambling to overhaul the open-source Linux kernel's virtual memory system. Meanwhile, Microsoft is expected to publicly introduce the necessary changes to its Windows operating system in an upcoming Patch Tuesday: these changes were seeded to beta testers running fast-ring Windows Insider builds in November and December.
 
Crucially, these updates to both Linux and Windows will incur a performance hit on Intel products. The effects are still being benchmarked, however we're looking at a ballpark figure of five to 30 per cent slow down, depending on the task and the processor model. "
 
https://www.theregister.c...intel_cpu_design_flaw/

oopsy

This is really bad news. I'm running a Core 2 Duo that is doing fine but is obviously not a power horse compared to newer CPUs and I'm concerned that even a 20% hit would be problematic. I'll have to wait and see.
 
I guess I can isolate my music machine from the internet so that I don't ever have the patch installed, but I really hate to do that.
 
I'm also curious if this affects my Windows tablets running Atom processors. They are adequate as-is but a 30 percent hit could be catastrophic. Lets not forget that this affects battery life, not just performance. It may be a very good thing that MS is investing strongly in ARM processors. That may turn out to be one of the best moves MS ever made.

Resonant Serpent
"A fundamental design flaw in Intel's processor chips has forced a significant redesign of the Linux and Windows kernels to defang the chip-level security bug.
 
Programmers are scrambling to overhaul the open-source Linux kernel's virtual memory system. Meanwhile, Microsoft is expected to publicly introduce the necessary changes to its Windows operating system in an upcoming Patch Tuesday: these changes were seeded to beta testers running fast-ring Windows Insider builds in November and December.
 
Crucially, these updates to both Linux and Windows will incur a performance hit on Intel products. The effects are still being benchmarked, however we're looking at a ballpark figure of five to 30 per cent slow down, depending on the task and the processor model. "
 
https://www.theregister.c...intel_cpu_design_flaw/

Apparently, we may not have all the facts or the reporting may be inaccurate/overblown...
 
https://www.thurrott.com/hardware/149469/intel-says-recently-reported-security-flaw-overblown
 

It is interesting that Intel's statements reassuringly say that the not-a-bug exploits "do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data." That is probably a good thing, but the issue that is being exploited does apparently have the potential to retrieve supposedly hidden data. If you doubt this issue is real, ask yourself why all of the major OS vendors are scrambling to produce a fix for the non-problem. Aside from another worry about someone lifting your passwords etc., some of us will potentially suffer from the OS tweaks needed to neutralize the exploits, which the OS developers cannot risk not fixing given the liability issues. Again Intel reassures us, "any performance impacts are workload-dependent, and, for the average computer user, should not be significant." Do users of high performance real time audio applications fall into the average computer user group? Stay tuned. Your future OS updates will answer these insignificant questions. 
 
https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-responds-to-security-research-findings/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/security-flaws-affect-every-intel-chip-since-1995-arm-processors-vulnerable/
 

Never been happier to still be using a Core2Quad processor that's 10 years old!  My laptop is in trouble though...

Kamm Schreiner
This is really bad news. I'm running a Core 2 Duo that is doing fine but is obviously not a power horse compared to newer CPUs and I'm concerned that even a 20% hit would be problematic. I'll have to wait and see.
 

Apparently this affects Haswell processors (core i3, i5, i7-4xxx) and newer, so Core 2 Duos and Quads are not affected.  You may be in the clear, man.

Gargamel314
Never been happier to still be using a Core2Quad processor that's 10 years old!  My laptop is in trouble though...

I think that CPU is one of the CPUs that have the security vulnerability. You're not out of the woods as far as I know. I am running a Core 2 Duo E6850 and I'm virtually certain it is affected by the problem. Any Intel CPU with the word 'Core' in it is affected. Again, to my knowledge...

slartabartfast
It is interesting that Intel's statements reassuringly say that the not-a-bug exploits "do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data."

how about "read data"?

Gargamel314
Apparently this affects Haswell processors (core i3, i5, i7-4xxx) and newer, so Core 2 Duos and Quads are not affected.  You may be in the clear, man.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's true. From what I'm reading today every intel processor sold since 1995 is potentially vulnerable (Meltdown) and all CPUs are potentially vulnerable to the Spectre vulnerability. I guess we'll be learning more over the next week, but right now, I think my CPU is one of the ones that is affected by the problem. Supposedly the Meltdown problem has only been "verified" (meaning it is still possible that other CPUs are vulnerable) on intel CPUs but the Spectre problem affects all CPUs - including ARM. Argh!