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MINIX — The most popular OS in the world, thanks to Intel

  • 5 November 2017
  • 5 replies
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Jasper_The_Rasper
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You might not know it, but inside your Intel system, you have an operating system running in addition to your main OS, MINIX. And it’s raising eyebrows and concerns.

 
                                                 


     

 
 
November 2nd, 2017   By Bryan Lunduke
 
Take a look at your desktop computer. What operating system is it currently running? 
 
Now take a look in your data center — at all of your servers. What operating system are they running? 
 
Linux? Microsoft Windows? Mac OS X? You could be running any of those three — or one of countless others. 
But here’s the crazy part: That’s not the only operating system you’re running. 
 
If you have a modern Intel CPU (released in the last few years) with Intel’s Management Engine built in, you’ve got another complete operating system running that you might not have had any clue was in there: MINIX. 
 
That’s right. MINIX. The Unix-like OS originally developed by Andrew Tanenbaum as an educational tool — to demonstrate operating system programming — is built into every new Intel CPU.
 
Full Article.
 
 

5 replies

Ssherjj
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Thank you Jasper,
 
This is rather scary if our Intel CPUs has a secret server and users privacy is indeed in jeporady. Everyone should read this here and realize the vulnerabilties of there Management Engine (ME).
 
Would it be a good time to switch to AMD if they  remove similar functionality from their CPU liness before Intel decides to remove this hidden server? While we wait for Intel to fix? I would switch after reading these articles. Creeps!
 
 
All this makes me really angry!:@
 
How do you see all of this @ & @?
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Baldrick
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Hi Jasper
 
Interesting article...was aware of this and believe that Intel's purchas of McAfee was linked to a move to do something about better securing the CPU onbaord OS.
 
Hi Sherry
 
A move to AMD is not an option unless one is prepared to completlely change one's kit, i.e., us in terms of the hardware we use & the system makers, in terms of what they put in the hardware they sell.
 
AMD has just launched, after many years of being behind Intel, the Ryzen CPU range which are much more on a par with Intel's Core range (even exceeding it when one compares the ThreadRipper CPU vs. i9 Core) but it takes time to make such a fundemental change.
 
Regards, Baldrick
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RetiredTripleHelix
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I will do a wait an see if anyone has or is going to try and exploit this vulnerability! To me AMD is out of the question as I prefer Laptops and AMD is not good on laptops IMO. :@
 
Ssherjj
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@ wrote:
I will do a wait an see if anyone has or is going to try and exploit this vulnerability! To me AMD is out of the question as I prefer Laptops and AMD is not good on laptops IMO. :@
 
That is the smart thing to do is wait and see..I have always heard Intel was better then AMD.
That's why they are cheaper then the Intels. I had a computer running AMD and it always ran hot. But that was the ol days.;)
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Ssherjj
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Userlevel 7
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@ wrote:
Hi Jasper
 
Interesting article...was aware of this and believe that Intel's purchas of McAfee was linked to a move to do something about better securing the CPU onbaord OS.
 
Hi Sherry
 
A move to AMD is not an option unless one is prepared to completlely change one's kit, i.e., us in terms of the hardware we use & the system makers, in terms of what they put in the hardware they sell.
 
AMD has just launched, after many years of being behind Intel, the Ryzen CPU range which are much more on a par with Intel's Core range (even exceeding it when one compares the ThreadRipper CPU vs. i9 Core) but it takes time to make such a fundemental change.
 
Regards, Baldrick
.  Very interesting indeed!:D The gaming processor with up to 16 cores and 32 threads of multi-processing power.
That ThreadRipper sounds like a doosy.

 
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