Intel has issued a statement saying several processor families will not be patched to overcome Variant 2 of the Spectre bug that was detected mid last year and made public just before Christmas. While the processor company has patched many of their processors, the road has been quite bumpy with some of the fixes making systems unstable resulting in spontaneous reboots. But now, it seems some of the CPUs that were going to patched have been thrown into the too hard basket.

Apple has never been scared to break with the past in order to move ahead. When they moved from Mac OS 9 to OS X/macOS, they offered some backwards compatibility but terminated that once they figured users had enough time to update. They did the same when they shifted from the Power PC platform to Intel processors in 2005, providing Rosetta as a way for older PowerPC apps to run on the new processors. And if reports are correct, we can expect another transition as Apple moves from Intel to their own processor platform.

Mobile World Congress (MWC) is about to launch in Barcelona and Intel intends to make a big splash. Having largely missed the boat when it comes to the smartphone and tablet markets, they are working with a number of OEMs to create portable computers are equipped with integrated 5G comms. At MWC, they'll be showing off a concept device, equipped with an early 5G modem and powered by 8th Generation Intel Core i5 processors.

Uninstalling an update that addresses a security vulnerability like Spectre or Meltdown sounds like a bad idea. But if the alternative is a PC that constantly crashes, you might be happy to take the small risk in exchange for stability. For Windows users, Microsoft now offers a patch that reverses Intel's microcode fix, but you won't find it via Windows Update.

Linux progenitor Linus Torvalds has already shared his feelings regarding the bungles of Spectre and Meltdown. They weren't happy ones. Now that patches are available, Torvalds is even less impressed, describing Intel's effort as "complete and utter garbage".

Worried about protecting yourself from the security exploit that is Spectre? Well if you already downloaded Intel's update patching the flaw, be prepared to download another one soon. Intel's software fix is the cause of some random rebooting issues users are running into, and the company is urging consumers and manufacturers to hold off on distributing the current update until the update is, uh, updated.

Intel has issued new advice telling customers running certain CPUs to hold back on installing patches for the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. With some customers reporting system instability after installing previous fixes, the company is scrambling to deliver reliable patches.

If the last week has led you to be wary of having an Intel CPU powering your PC then you might want to get excited, because it seems like AMD might have started actually making CPUs you'd want instead of having Intel inside.

After more than three decades as the leader in desktop and laptop processors, Intel's reputation is in big trouble. Following on the heels of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, F-Secure has revealed a new flaw that allows a hacker to bypass the need to enter credentials, including BIOS and Bitlocker passwords and TPM (Trusted Platform Module) PINs.

It affects most, if not all laptops that support Intel Management Engine/Intel AMT. Here's what you need to know.

Intel has been working with the industry to develop and distribute software and firmware mitigations for Spectre and Meltdown. The company says that although they don't have information that these exploits have been used to obtain customer data, they now have additional data on the impact on some client platforms.

The biggest tech news of the summer has, arguably, been the revelation that CPUs in a massive number of computer systems are susceptible to three different vulnerabilities. Two of these, CVE 2017-5753 and CVE 2017-5715, have been dubbed Spectre with the third, CVE 2017-5754, given the Meltdown moniker. Tech companies around the world have been scrambling to provide mitigations to these vulnerabilities. Microsoft has provided some detail on what they've done and what performance impact you can expect.

Intel and AMD might be fierce competitors for decades, but that hasn't stopped the two chip makers from teaming up to create a new mobile CPU with souped up integrated GPU that will soon be found in gaming and professional laptops from many major computer makers. We've known about this plan since November, but now we have the details.

There are a pair of security flaws present in nearly every device you've got that could allow hackers to steal information like passwords and other personal information. The exploits, Spectre and Meltdown, take advantage of actual flaws in the design of your device's microprocessor.

This week, news of massive security vulnerabilities afflicting every modern model of Intel processor went public, even as developers for practically every major platform frantically rushed to roll out fixes. Much more information has now become available about Meltdown and Spectre, a group of attack methods malicious parties could use to break into some of the most sensitive inner workings of any device using the affected CPUs.

There's small screwups and big screwups. Here is tremendously huge screwup: Virtually all Intel processors produced in the last decade have a major security hole that could allow "normal user programs - from database applications to JavaScript in web browsers - to discern to some extent the layout or contents of protected kernel memory areas," the Register reports.

When I first started using PCs regularly, back in the early 1990s, systems using Intel processors were priced at a premium. So that meant my first couple of Windows PCs (we had a Commodore 128 at home before that) ran a Cyrix processor - a 486DLC if memory serves. But through most of the 1990s Intel ruled the roost. Their "Intel Inside" campaign was one of the most successful marketing campaigns of all time. But the world has moved on and we are on the cusp of a new processor era.

A number of Intel processoirs released over the last couple of years have been found by independent researchers, and confirmed by Intel, to have vulnerabilities that put aystems at risk of an elevated privilege attack.

It's been a whirlwind year in the PC market, in no small part thanks to the return of AMD. But things just got a whole lot more insane of late, with AMD and Intel - of all companies - announcing a partnership.

Intel has been the world's leading chip maker for a long time. But they are no longer number one. Samsung has surpassed Intel and the numbers make for some interesting reading.