US Patent Application 18138591. APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR SPECULATIVE EXECUTION SIDE CHANNEL MITIGATION simplified abstract
Contents
APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR SPECULATIVE EXECUTION SIDE CHANNEL MITIGATION
Organization Name
Inventor(s)
Jason W. Brandt of Austin TX (US)
Deepak K. Gupta of Portland OR (US)
Rodrigo Branco of Hillsboro OR (US)
Robert S. Chappell of Portland OR (US)
Sergiu Ghetie of Hillsboro OR (US)
Wojciech Powiertowski of Beaverton OR (US)
Jared W. Stark, Iv of Portland OR (US)
Scott J. Cape of Portland OR (US)
Hisham Shafi of San Jose CA (US)
Yair Berger of Pardes-Hanna Karkur (IL)
Scott P. Bobholz of Bolton MA (US)
Sagar V. Dalvi of Hillsboro OR (US)
Yogesh Bijlani of Portland OR (US)
APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR SPECULATIVE EXECUTION SIDE CHANNEL MITIGATION - A simplified explanation of the abstract
- This abstract for appeared for US patent application number 18138591 Titled 'APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR SPECULATIVE EXECUTION SIDE CHANNEL MITIGATION'
Simplified Explanation
This abstract discusses methods and devices that help prevent speculative execution side channels. It also describes hardware and environments that use these mitigations. The abstract specifically focuses on three mechanisms: indirect branch restricted speculation (IBRS), single thread indirect branch predictors (STIBP), and indirect branch predictor barrier (IBPB). These mechanisms aim to restrict speculation of indirect branches, prevent indirect branch predictions from being controlled by other threads, and prevent software executed before a barrier from controlling indirect branch predictions after the barrier.
Original Abstract Submitted
Methods and apparatuses relating to mitigations for speculative execution side channels are described. Speculative execution hardware and environments that utilize the mitigations are also described. For example, three indirect branch control mechanisms and their associated hardware are discussed herein: (i) indirect branch restricted speculation (IBRS) to restrict speculation of indirect branches, (ii) single thread indirect branch predictors (STIBP) to prevent indirect branch predictions from being controlled by a sibling thread, and (iii) indirect branch predictor barrier (IBPB) to prevent indirect branch predictions after the barrier from being controlled by software executed before the barrier.
