Response to Meltdown and Spectre

[Frank Leonhardt]

On 2018-02-05 15:57, Matthias Apitz wrote:
> El día lunes, febrero 05, 2018 a las 02:37:20p. m. +0100, Polytropon 
> escribió:
> 
>> > For all production server I run any reboot that is not scheduled by admins
>> > is ultimate disaster, so it is equivalent to "bricked" machine. That
>> > hardware can not be further used as production server, but "mere" fact or
>> > reboot is ultimate disaster itself.
>> 
>> While this is not the established meaning of "bricked", it it
>> definitely an understandable (!) interpretation of the term.
> 
> For me "bricked" in addition to "unusable" means: there is no software
> way any more to change the fault because the hardware does not boot up
> into a state where it could read(...) any attempts to change somethinb. 
> The
> device is now "dark" and does not communicate anymore by no means.
> 
> Only a hardware change (for example replace some chip) would help.

I'd go further - something is only bricked to me when I can't fix it 
using a rework station. It's been done...

HOWEVER, Polytropon et al make a very good point - if the software 
update means the device is no longer usable for its intended purpose 
then it might as well have bricked it. The effect is the same.