Any idea of what the performance hit will be for the Spectre / Meltdown patch?

Huh?

Hi Szumi,

According to what I have read about, there is quite a bit uncertainty about how computers will be affected by the upcoming patches. It can be anywhere from 2 to 30% I believe which is major.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/

How APP will be affected is hard to tell at this point, from what I understand this influences the most basic operation of your computer, so the OS and all applications will be affected to a certain degree.

It's clear that this only affects computers with Intel processors. AMD users won't be affected, since it's a problem of Intel's design of their CPUs.

Hopefully, over time, this problem will be dealt with without serious performance hits...

Currently, I do not know if the most recent Intel CPUs are affected as well. Anybody knows?

Kind regards,

Mabula

Gulp. Are we talking about some kind of BIOS update to Windows? I've got an i7 Generation 7 and I'm wondering what you guys are talking about.

Hi Greg,

A couple of days ago, news came out that all Intel CPUs made in the last 10 years have 2 major security holes. Since these holes are burnt into the processor, it can only be fixed on the Operating System level, leading to a possible severe performance hit for all machines with an Intel CPU in them, made in the last 10 years or so.... How severe, that's the question. Intel downplays it for now it seems.

Check my link of the register 😉

Mabula

I see. There was an Windows update a couple days ago I installed so I guess I'm all packed up? It's been cloudy but I'll have to rerun some old Subs and see if it took a hit.

Posted by: Greg

I see. There was an Windows update a couple days ago I installed so I guess I'm all packed up? It's been cloudy but I'll have to rerun some old Subs and see if it took a hit.

I would be interested if you can detect a difference. 

Mr. Haverkamp, when you implement putting all the files that were used to create an image in the fits header can you also add processing time? It could be useful to benchmark changes.

Posted by: Greg

I see. There was an Windows update a couple days ago I installed so I guess I'm all packed up? It's been cloudy but I'll have to rerun some old Subs and see if it took a hit.

No, I don't think so, I believe the patch or patches are scheduled to be released next tuesday... It would be interesting to test before and after with the exact same settings. And I think lots of people worldwide will be teting the performance hit on their machines with intel CPUs...

Posted by: Szumi

Posted by: Greg

I see. There was an Windows update a couple days ago I installed so I guess I'm all packed up? It's been cloudy but I'll have to rerun some old Subs and see if it took a hit.

I would be interested if you can detect a difference. 

Mr. Haverkamp, when you implement putting all the files that were used to create an image in the fits header can you also add processing time? It could be useful to benchmark changes.

Yes me too.

Szumi, I have added it to my worklist to include integration time in the fits header of an integration 😉 A list of all frame names included in the integration is not convenient to add to the fits header. I can include the number of frames off course. If you want to have a list of all frame names included, I think I will need to create a separate .txt file for this. Including 500 frame names in a fits header is not convenient and possible the fits specification doesn't allow for so much information in the header of a single Fits HDU, I will need to check that.

Mabula

The text file solution would be fine with me.