Intel has been facing the press and its peers all this month after the disclosure of the Meltdown and Spectre flaws found in the architecture of its processors. Today, the company faced its investors and analysts in a quarterly earnings call and promised a permanent fix was on the way.
CEO Brian Krzanich, who has tried to stay in front of the wave of bad publicity, for the most part, said during the conference call that the company knew it still had more work to do going forward, despite working "around the clock with our customers and partners" over the last several months even before the flaw was publicly disclosed. The company has already issued one update through its various partners, but that was found to have its own bugs, and Intel asked for it not to be deployed further. Linux creator Linus Torvalds has called the processor work "garbage."
But to avoid the issue in the future, Krzanich said the next round of processors due out later this year will include "silicon-based" changes that will make them immune to Spectre and Meltdown. The company has assigned some of its best minds to the problem, he said. "We are committed to the task and I am confident we are up to the challenge."
Krzanich did not mention the pending litigation over the flaws, or his cashing in of numerous stock options in November while the company was working to fix the flaws before the public was aware of them.
Intel's stock was up 3.75% to $47 in after-hours trading after a strong holiday quarter.
Via VentureBeat
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