ralphbsz,
I think you are referring to an IBM Thinkpad which was a laptop computer. The spectre flaw is endemic in the industry as a whole and requires a rethink of CPU design across the board. The meltdown bug is aimed straight at Intel though because they were playing fast and loose with the rules to get a performance advantage over their competitors. To be fair, some ARM chips are also vulnerable to meltdown. In general, this is a new class of attacks. The concepts have been around for awhile but were generally considered to be theoretical, until now.
The number one priority for any company is to make money. Spending money to fix a theoretical exploit which has not been proven was considered to be a bad business decision. However, AMD bit the bullet and fixed it anyways. Now that the roosters have come home to roost at Intel, their 'good' business decision has turned a theoretical problem into an unmitigated disaster. Their PR department is trying to put so much spin on the issue that their Santa Clara, CA facility has spun up to the point that there is now a permanent cyclone over Silicon Valley which will not dissipate any time soon.
Actually, you can avoid Intel products at a large scale. Just don't buy anything with an Intel CPU in it. My HP laptop which I bought a week before news of the flaws broke has an AMD chip in it. So yeah, AMD hardware is out there, and right now it's looking more attractive than ever.
I think you are referring to an IBM Thinkpad which was a laptop computer. The spectre flaw is endemic in the industry as a whole and requires a rethink of CPU design across the board. The meltdown bug is aimed straight at Intel though because they were playing fast and loose with the rules to get a performance advantage over their competitors. To be fair, some ARM chips are also vulnerable to meltdown. In general, this is a new class of attacks. The concepts have been around for awhile but were generally considered to be theoretical, until now.
The number one priority for any company is to make money. Spending money to fix a theoretical exploit which has not been proven was considered to be a bad business decision. However, AMD bit the bullet and fixed it anyways. Now that the roosters have come home to roost at Intel, their 'good' business decision has turned a theoretical problem into an unmitigated disaster. Their PR department is trying to put so much spin on the issue that their Santa Clara, CA facility has spun up to the point that there is now a permanent cyclone over Silicon Valley which will not dissipate any time soon.
Actually, you can avoid Intel products at a large scale. Just don't buy anything with an Intel CPU in it. My HP laptop which I bought a week before news of the flaws broke has an AMD chip in it. So yeah, AMD hardware is out there, and right now it's looking more attractive than ever.