Asus and ASRock release Z97 firmware updates to counter Spectre
As we reported on Wednesday, folks with Haswell and Broadwell CPUs may be able to get a Spectre-mitigating patch from Windows Update. It's really preferable to have that sort of patch in firmware, though. That way, you'll be protected even if you use a different OS. As it happens, folks using Asus and ASRock motherboards might be in luck. Those two companies have issued firmware updates for many of their Z97 boards that include the latest mitigations in microcode from Intel.
ASRock actually began patching its Z97 boards way back in the middle of March, but we didn't notice until today. TR honcho Jeff noticed that his own Asus Z97-A motherboard had a new beta firmware update available and sent me on a quest. Despite my searching, it seems like only Asus and ASRock ...