Stephen Hawking: R.I.P

He was the outstanding theoretical physicist of our time. His lifetime disease was no handicap for his work on quantum physics and black holes, it gave him always enough room and time to think and rethink.
Because of his popular and outstanding work he had a celebrity status and appeared in different TV shows like The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory and of course in Star Trek: The Next Generation playing a poker game with Issac Newton and Albert Einstein. Einsteins work an the base theories and model made it possible for Hawking to continue his work in detail. His relation with Einstein made him die on the exact same day as Einstein was born, the 14th of march.

AMD Ryzen APU with Radeon Vega Graphics released

AMD released its first “Zen” core based APU with Radeon Vega graphics called “Raven Ridge”. It has the following improvements compared to the desktop Ryzen CPUs released in 2017:

  • Memory Controller supports Up to DDR4-2933 Memory
  • I/O: 16x PCI-E 3.0 Lanes, 4x USB 3.1 Gen2 (10 Gbit/s, requires new 400 Series chipsets for full speed)
  • Precision Boost 2 Turbo Mode
  • Display Engine supports HDMI 2.0 and Display Port 1.4

Desktop models

  • Ryzen 5 2400G “Raven Ridge” 4 Cores/8 Threads Base 3,6GHz Turbo 3,9GHz 4MB L3 Cache Socket AM4 TDP 65 Watt
    Radeon Vega CUs 11 Shaders 704 GPU Clock Up to 1250Mhz
  • *Ryzen 5 2400GE “Raven Ridge” 4 Cores/8 Threads Socket AM4 TDP 35 Watt
  • Ryzen 3 2200G “Raven Ridge” 4 Cores/4 Threads Base 3,5GHz Turbo 3,7GHz 4MB L3 Cache Socket AM4 TDP 65 Watt
    Radeon Vega CUs 8 Shaders 512 GPU Clock Up to 1150Mhz
  • *Ryzen 3 2200GE “Raven Ridge” 4 Cores/4 Threads Socket AM4 TDP 35 Watt
  • *Athlon 200G “Raven Ridge” 2 Cores/4 Threads Base 3.2GHz Socket AM4 TDP 35 Watt

(* not confirmed, not yet released)

Compatible with all AM4 chipsets A320/B350/X320 and a BIOS with AGESA Firmware 1.0.0.7 or newer. The system will not
initialize with an older firmware.

Mobile models

  • Ryzen Mobile 7 2700U “Raven Ridge” 4 Cores/8 Threads Base 2,2GHz Turbo 3,8GHz 4MB L3 Cache TDP 15W cTDP 9-25W Up to DDR4-2400 (Dual Channel)
    Radeon Vega CUs 10 Shaders 640 GPU Clock Up to 1,3GHz
  • Ryzen Mobile 5 2500U “Raven Ridge” 4 Cores/8 Threads Base 2,0GHz Turbo 3,6GHz 4MB L3 Cache TDP 15W cTDP 9-25W Up to DDR4-2400 (Dual Channel)
    Radeon Vega CUs 8 Shaders 512 GPU Clock Up to 1,1GHz
  • Ryzen Mobile 3 2300U “Raven Ridge” 4 Cores/4 Threads Base 2,0GHz Turbo 3,4GHz 4MB L3 Cache TDP 15W cTDP 12-25W Up to DDR4-2400 (Dual Channel)
    Radeon Vega CUs 6 Shaders 384 GPU Clock Up to 1,1GHz
  • Ryzen Mobile 3 2200U “Raven Ridge” 2 Cores/4 Threads Base 2,5GHz Turbo 3,4GHz 4MB L3 Cache TDP 15W cTDP 12-25W Up to DDR4-2400 (Dual Channel)
    Radeon Vega CUs 3 Shaders 192 GPU Clock Up to 1,1GHz

HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Server Launch

The waiting is over as HPE finally released its long-awaited Proliant DL 385 G10 server refresh with AMDs new Epyc Server CPUs (code name “Naples”). This Server comes with a 1P or 2P configuration like in the previous generation of the DL385. HP already added some of the required drivers for the DL 385 G10 server to the latest Service Pack for ProLiant 2017.10.1 (spp-2017.10.1_1), but for the latest driver and firmware updates go to the HPE support site or check the links below.

Docs

Advisory

Bench

Important Driver Updates

WannaCry on Samba = SambaCry

After the WannaCry attack on Windows it was the question if the open source implementation SAMBA may have a similar vulnerability and in fact it has as currently reported: CVE-2017-7494 Affected are all versions from version 3.5.0 onwards. Patches are available and every distribution should have an update ready in their repos. A workaround is to add the parameter

nt pipe support = no

to the [global] section of the smb.conf file.

Samba_

AMD’s Financial Analyst Day 2017

This years financial analyst day had more product previews and launches than any before. Even the AMD Crew now had 6 speaker compared to 4 in the last year. The big news on this day was the introduction of the Server Epyc CPU code name “Napples” (32 Cores 64 Threads). This also means that good known Opteron brand is now history. Another highlight was the introduction of the upcoming premium desktop CPU AMD Ryzen 9 Threadripper (16 Cores 32 Threads). In the 2nd half of the year is also the launch of the Ryzen Mobile APUs with integrated Vega Graphics.

Upcoming AMD Ryzen 16 Ccres 32 Threads Threadripper
Upcoming AMD Ryzen 9 with 16 Ccres 32 Threads Threadripper

Launch Dates:

  • 2H17 AMD Ryzen 3 Desktop
  • Summer 2017 AMD Ryzen 9 Threadripper
  • 2H17 AMD Epyc Server CPU
  • 2H17 AMD Ryzen Consumer Mobile
  • 2H17 AMD Ryzen Pro Commercial Desktop
  • 1H18 AMD Ryzen Pro Commercial Mobile

WannaCrypt Ransomware Attack

The WannaCry/WannaCrypt Ransomware attack successfully compromised tons of systems already by using the classic e-mail attachment vector and the 2nd vector is to use the vulnerable SMB protocol to attack machines in internal networks to infect them as well.

To fix the SMB issue Microsoft already released an update in march 2017, security bulletin MS17-010.

Description:
This security update resolves vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. The most severe of the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends specially crafted messages to a Windows SMBv1 server.

Microsoft now also released an update for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (KB4012598) to fix the issue. Automatic Updates should find and install the updates or you can find them in the Microsoft Update Catalog. Microsoft has some more information about this issue on the MSRC team blog.

Available Patches:

Microsoft kills future security updates for Windows 7 on modern hardware

On the April 2017 patch day Microsoft has released two security bulletins KB4015549 and KB4015546 that will block future security updates on Windows 7 in case a newer processor is detected that is part of the following CPU Families: Intel KabyLake, AMD Bristol Ridge and AMD Ryzen.
The block mechanism is enforced by the new Windows Update Agent Version 7.6.7601.23735 this also prevents manually update installs using the .msu package. After installing the Microsoft Updates from above a UI nag screen will show up that reminds you of the non supported hardware, even when the system is working ok.

The error in the log file looks like this:

c98 Agent WARNING: WU client failed Searching for update with error 0x80240037
f24 AU >>## RESUMED ## AU: Search for updates [CallId = {692C634C-461A-46AC-82FD-16C025C65F22}]
f24 AU WARNING: Failed because device hardware is not supported and not exempt update was discovered with this scan.
f24 AU # WARNING: Search callback failed, result = 0x80240037
f24 AU # WARNING: Failed to find updates with error code 80240037

An Offline install will also not work:

444 PT + Offline serviceId = {CB8C92B3-A833-483F-A728-F55D2C09DAEC}
444 Agent WARNING: Only detected non-exempt updates on device with unsupported processor.
444 Agent FATAL: Device has unsupported processor. Return 80240037.
444 Agent * WARNING: Exit code = 0x80240037

AMD’s Ryzen 7 release

After all the time of waiting AMD now just released the first part of the new high end CPU line called Ryzen 7 with all new Zen cores to the market. It has been a lot of work in the past years to get the new core ready for launch. Some of the people of the Zen team talk about the work on the Zen core and products, including:

  • Suzanne Plummer (Sr. Director Design Engineering)
  • Mike Clarke (Sr. Fellow Design Engineering)
  • Jim Anderson (Sr. Vice President and GM Computing and Graphics)
  • John Taylor (Corp. VP Marketing)
  • Gerald Youngblood (Sr. Director Marketing)
  • James Prior (Product Manager)

The Ryzen 7 model list:

  • AMD Ryzen 7 1800X (8C/16T, 3.6GHz Base/4.0 Turbo, 16MB L3 Cache, 95W TDP, XFR, Socket AM4)
  • AMD Ryzen 7 1700X (8C/16T, 3.4GHz Base/3.8 Turbo, 16MB L3 Cache, 95W TDP, XFR, Socket AM4)
  • AMD Ryzen 7 1700 (8C/16T, 3.0GHz Base/3.7 Turbo, 16MB L3 Cache, 65W TDP, Socket AM4)

Overclocking
Most of the Ryzen CPUs have their own user friendly auto overclocking feature called XFR.
For advanced users AMD just released the AMD Master Application which is a overclocking and monitoring tool for detailed settings of the CPU. For more information check out the AMD Ryzen Master Overclocking Users Guide. Download of Ryzen Master is available from this site.

Intel’s Kaby Lake Family

Intel completed the Kaby Lake Family of CPUs with the release of the Kaby Lake Desktop CPU in January 2017. The Mobile CPUs were already released in the end of 2016. Kaby Lake is a refresh of Skylake with higher clocks and an improved graphics core due improved manufacturing.