A third-party software developer discovered a bug in Haswell's TSX Implementation, which can cause severe software failures, reports from TechRadar and TechReport said. Early Broadwell processors delivered to manufacturers also contain the bug. Intel confirmed the "erratum," as how the company called it, through its own testing.

Software developers use the set of TSX, or Transactional Synchronisation Extensions, to decide how CPU resources are allocated to multi-threaded applications.

Intel, for its part, did not recall the parts. Instead, it decided to deal with this snafu by disabling the TSX instructions with the use of a microcode that was sent to the manufacturer's motherboard.

Software developers working with TSX instructions can do one of the two actions. TechReport proposes that they could either continue using the firmware and look for alternatives or avoid updating their systems and risk possible TSX-related memory corruption.

TechRadar says that since Broadwell and Haswell products are delivered mostly in consumer products and TSX-based applications are found mostly in businesses and enterprises, end-users will not be directly affected by the erratum.

An update by Intel to TechReport states that there will not be a delay in the launch of the Haswell-EP processor, adding that the TSX erratum will have been solved by the time Haswell-EX appears on the market.

By: DocMemory
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