ECC Memory, the founder of Linux openly attacks Intel

Torvalds criticizes Intel for the errors and malfunctions he reported, but the manufacturer has yet to implement any fixes. Are Intel's prices reasonable? Here is the information Torvalds provided on this subject.

Linus Torvalds is criticizing Intel's ECC memory and has switched to AMD. He says he's happy with the AMD platform. He switched to AMD last year after more than 15 years of using Intel processors. He has since been using a Ryzen Threadripper 3970X and has given positive feedback on its performance. Torvalds announced on the Real World Technologies forum that he switched to AMD because they offer products with a much better price-to-performance ratio than their rival, Intel. Torvalds tested high-end Xeon processors but says they didn't perform well. Intel charged five times as much for a processor with twice the performance.

What about AMD?

On AMD's side, the price is reasonable: a dual-processor system costs slightly more than twice the price of a single-processor system. This price is justified because, aside from the additional processor, you have to pay for other things: cooling and slightly modified components. Torvalds states that AMD also offers EPYC processors at reasonable prices. If you want more power, you have to pay more, but it's a fair price. According to him, AMD isn't ripping you off, and it provides ECC support for its standard Threadripper and Ryzen processors, although this information isn't officially stated. This isn't the case with Intel, which sells components at exorbitant prices whose performance doesn't live up to expectations.  

ECC, or Error Correcting Code, relates to memory. If memory devices have ECC, they automatically correct errors. These errors are very common, Torvalds points out, and the claim that next-generation DRAM is so reliable that it doesn't need ECC is completely untrue.

Intel's errors remain uncorrected

Linux kernel programmer and founder Linus Torvalds continues to state in his messages that there are still uncorrected bugs in modern DRAM memory. This means that memory attacks persist, even within the Rowhammer generation. These bugs have remained uncorrected for about ten years, despite users and programmers reporting anomalies to Intel. And in some cases, Intel labels certain problems as attacks when they are simply missing features.  

Ultimately, Torvalds switched to AMD. He says he's happy to be using Ryzen processors. He doesn't deny that he had criticized AMD's Bulldozer-core processors. But the company, led by Lisa Su, redeemed itself with Ryzen and the Chiplet approach. Torvalds won't be going back to Intel processors. When questioned about this, his answer was a categorical "no." In his words, HEDT and Xeon chips are well and truly dead for him. The value of Intel chips has plummeted, and therefore there's no reason to stay with or return to Intel components. This isn't the first time Linux Torvalds has harshly criticized Intel; he did so quite forcefully regarding AVX-512 instructions.

More and more developers, users, and customers are abandoning Intel for AMD due to a lack of transparency in pricing and technology. Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux, is among them. It's time for Intel to turn things around in this new year if it wants to catch up with AMD, which is gaining an ever-increasing market share.