Intel fixes prime number torture bug in Skylake

Posted on Monday, January 11 2016 @ 14:37 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck

Researchers working for the Mersenne Community, which publishes the Prime95 benchmark, discovered a flaw in Intel's Skylake CPUs that can freeze a system under heavy prime number testing.

Intel acknowledged the issue and said it occurs under certain complex workload conditions, like those that may be encountered when running the Prime95 test.

The chip giant identified the issue and is working with motherboard partners to roll out a new BIOS to apply a microcode update. Not a lot of details are known but it appears to be a bug in the Skylake architecture.

Via: Tweakers

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Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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