Last month, Intel’s new naming scheme for its Xeon processors leaked. Instead of E3, E5, and E7 branding, the chips would be given metallic names, from Bronze at the bottom-end through Silver and Gold to Platinum at the top. Today, the company made this new branding official as part of a larger shake-up of its Xeon platform.
The next generation of Xeons, due to arrive this summer, will make up what Intel calls the “Xeon Scalable Processor Family.” This explains the change in core naming that is accompanying the new branding; the SP suffix is replacing the E, EP, and EX suffixes used in previous-generation Xeons.
“Telemetry is an automated communications process by which measurements and other data are collected at remote or inaccessible points and transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring.”
Why the hell would you want that for example for your workstation?
(intel brags about improved telemetry in the new Xeons)
Edited 2017-05-05 06:05 UTC
Microsoft have got away with it (for now), so they’re all going for it. I expect this is only the start!
They all do it, singling out MS when they are actually the most transparent is kinda funny. Google has been doing it since day one, and Apple since iOS became a thing.
It’s a thing for some years now. Selling RTU and now integrating them in the Xeon chips is not that far fetched.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_terminal_unit
They’ve been trying to include various set of features in a CPU for some time now as well.
-“Why the hell would you want that for example for your workstation?”
… Maybe because Xeon’s line processors are intended for big iron servers not for workstations ?
Intel’s line is most certainly for workstations as well as servers. Tell Dell, HP and Lenovo that they should stop selling all workstations. Not to mention, they’re also used in smaller servers.
Until ryzen, there wasn’t out there in the consumer or small business space for fast parallel systems.
If you actually need parallel speed, a workstation is the way to go. I use one for compiling packages for my OS project.
Dockered ?
Now that dual/quad/6/8 core is common without multi-socket mother boards, there is now reason to pay extra for xeon to use for a personal computer workload. The only advantage it offers is ECC (Error correcting code) memory at the price of a small dip in speed, but that type of memory is more important in servers and has negligible benefits in personal computers.
Every Intel workstation on the market uses Xeons, ECC RAM and professional grade video cards. In some situations (eg aviation and medical devices) it is a legal requirement to use approved professional grade hardware.
Telemetry in the context of a CPU is not the same as in the context of an OS. There are aspects of performance that can’t be reliably measured externally to the component itself but have a significant impact on how well stuff runs (the branch-predictor’s hit ratio is an example of this). Intel’s usage of the word telemetry for this type of thing is probably not the best choice, but this is what they’re talking about when they talk about ‘improved telemetry’, not something sending data to some remote location outside of the system.
judgen,
This is why it’s important to run open source code, even for firmware and privileged CPU modes. As a consumer however I continue to be extremely disappointed because while I want to encourage everyone to make an informed choice and promote open technology, the fact of the matter is that the availability of open products is often non-existent. Whether it’s intel’s AMT/DRAC/Spiderduo, my network printer, my network PDU and UPS, etc I was determined to acquire open products if I could, but very often I come up empty handed. How come it’s so difficult to find products with open technology to support with my wallet? I don’t have the words to describe just how disappointing this is to me.
Edited 2017-05-05 13:56 UTC
Yeah, I just found out about this today and have been auditing our entire network. We never used AMT so we were safe, however I did a full audit anyway to be sure. Pain in the butt.
I disagree that open source will solve this problem though. I, as the user, have no way to verify that the published source is identical to the code running on my CPU and, further, don’t have the time to audit the code myself. One corrupt individual in the right place, or one corrupt OEM, undermines open source just as easily as it does a “black box.”
Unless you can upload your own binary.
Do you think I have time to do that on thousands of machines?
You would do it when you deploy machines.
Just like people install the BIOS and software image they know works.
Lennie,
For clarification, are you suggestion there is actually a way to upload your own binary to AMT or is this just hypothetical?
If there is a way to run your own AMT firmware I’d love to know how!
What sucks for me is that the latest AMT software for my system from HP is dated 2014 on it’s website, and I have no idea if they intend to patch these vulnerabilities. I’m upset that I don’t have the source code for it.
We often blame consumers for buying proprietary hardware in the first place, but damn it I look for open alternatives. It’s not that I didn’t know better, most vendors just won’t sell it.
Sorry, hypothetical.
We are using more and more open source / free software and still computing is getting more and more closed.
Edited 2017-05-08 11:51 UTC
Lennie,
Indeed, the benefits of open source are lost when machines lock the user out using crypto. The FSF saw this, and developed GPL3 to counter it, but by the time they did, critical projects like linux were firmly planted in GPL2.
The industry doesn’t have to evolve this way. I keep fantasizing about how things should be with open & robust technology to encourage 3rd party innovation, but it’s quite apparent that profit driven companies have a different agenda.
But I think ease of use also has something to do with it.
People are willing to give their data to someone else to not have to deal with the maintenance.
Doing it right actually takes extra effort, like:
Chrome can hold your passwords and synchronize them between browsers. We don’t know what/how they encrypt.
Firefox does this properly, they use the password to encrypt the data in the browser before sending it the Mozilla servers. Mozilla has no access to the data.
Lennie,
I agree with you, however I don’t think there’s any technical reason than openness and ease of use have to be mutually exclusive, that’s a business decision. I’m not against vendors offering convenient cloud features, but I am against those cloud features being proprietary and locked down to a single vendor. The technical specs should be open and the owners should have the ability to select the provider of their choice, including self-hosting if they so choose.
Obviously companies don’t want competition, but vendor lock is doing a great deal of harm to would-be alternatives.
darknexus,
Well, the benefit of open source is that white-hat guys (ie security researchers, defcon hackers, etc) can audit it independently. We’re not forced to take the (highly biased) manufacturer at their word that the software is secure. When it’s open, you get all the same assurances from the manufacturer PLUS those of independent researchers.
It’s not good when exploits remain in open source code that nobody’s looking at (I’m sure you remember shellshock, poodle, etc). But while open source is not the panacea that will resolve 100% of security problems, it’s still a crucial requirement for making security transparent rather than taking companies at their word. Companies go on record all the time bluffing about the security of their systems, screwups have happened so many times even with financial firms, porn sites, retail stores, tech companies, etc that we all need to know that we can’t take them at their word.
Bummer, who knew they weren’t before they got metallic branding.
In the future Intel will do away with processor designations and just use price ranges. The ranges will roughly map to the list below:
* “If you have to ask…”
* “I’m sorry, how much?”
* “You’re not paying for this, so who cares.”
* “Spendy”
* “Pricey”
* “Cheapskate aka Come on. Don’t get cheap on me now. You got some dollars there. I know you do, so let’s just move up a little.”
Edited 2017-05-05 19:12 UTC
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/05/intel_amt_remote_exploit/