Intel Releases New CPU Microcode For Two New Security Advisories

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  • AdrianBc
    Senior Member
    • Nov 2015
    • 299

    #21
    Originally posted by energyman View Post

    486 introduced SMM.

    The first model of 486, 486DX, which was launched in April 1989, did not have SMM.

    The first CPU with SMM was Intel 80386SL, which was launched in October 1990. This was a 386 variant intended for laptops.

    Some later 486 models, beginning in 1992, have added SMM.


    The initial motivation for SMM was as a workaround for the fact that Microsoft was too lazy to add the power management functions, which normally belong to the operating system, to MS-DOS and Windows.

    That has forced the BIOS providers to do this work in the place of Microsoft and Intel has provided SMM for this purpose. Unfortunately, SMM is easy to abuse, either intentionally or by mistake, by the computer or motherboard vendors, because it cannot be controlled by the legal owner of the computer. Better consumer protection laws should have forbidden the existence of such Trojan horses.










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