AMD Ryzen segmentation fault issue discovered on Linunx

Phoronix was in touch with AMD and reports the company confirmed the existence of a segmentation fault issue with the Ryzen processor. AMD says the problem is "very complex" and claims it's a "performance marginality problem" that's exclusive to certain workloads on Linux.

Unix may also be affected but Windows systems reportedly don't show problematic behavior. And unlike early reports and speculation, the problem is not isolated to a particular motherboard brand. AMD also claims the issue is limited to early Ryzen processors and is not present with EPYC or Threadripper processors.

Linux users impacted by the issue can contact AMD's support:

Ryzen customers believe to be affected by the problem can contact AMD Customer Care. Some of those who have contacted customer care about the segmentation faults have in turn been affected by thermal, power, or other problems, but AMD says they are committed to working with those encountering this performance marginality issue under Linux. AMD will also be stepping up their Linux testing/QA for future consumer products.

The problem has been talked about on online boards since shortly after the Ryzen launch but didn't get a lot of attention from AMD until the compilation of a script that makes it very easy to reproduce the issue. It's unknown why EPYC or Threadripper are not affected, or how AMD plans to resolve the issue.