Intel Security Issue: Does it Affect SOLIDWORKS?

Readers of this blog are tech savvy and are most likely already aware of the Intel Security fault commonly known as “Meltdown” and “Spectre.”

This is not specific to SOLIDWORKS, this fault can affect all PCs equipped with specific models of Intel® chips. The SOLIDWORKS Development team, Technical Support, and Quality Assurance departments have all begun tests to evaluate the impact on SOLIDWORKS customers.

This fault is scheduled to be addressed with security patches from Microsoft® released to be released on Tuesday, January 9th, 2018. (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4056892/windows-10-update-kb4056892)

Several news outlets have reported that with the required security patch applied, overall CPU performance may be reduced by 5 % to 30% depending on specific model and generation of Intel Chipset. More information can be found in the below Microsoft link.

As stated above, this is NOT SOLIDWORKS specific. We are continuing to work with Microsoft and our other software and hardware partners to ensure we minimize impact to SOLIDWORKS users.

For more information, please review the following Microsoft link, US-CERT.gov link, and link from Intel:

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/01/09/understanding-the-performance-impact-of-spectre-and-meltdown-mitigations-on-windows-systems/

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity/2017/11/21/Intel-Firmware-Vulnerability

https://security-center.intel.com/advisory.aspx?intelid=INTEL-SA-00086&languageid=en-fr

Additionally, SOLIDWORKS Knowledge Base item S-074167 (Direct Customer Portal link) has been published and will contain the latest updates from SOLIDWORKS Technical Support and Development.

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Mark Johnson

Expert Technical Support Engineer, Escalation Manager for the Americas at SOLIDWORKS

Mark Johnson is the SOLIDWORKS Escalation Manager for the Americas. He also has resolved the highest number of technical support cases in SOLIDWORKS support history – over 45,000! This experience gives him a unique perspective which he leverages to train our VAR community and take part in the SOLIDWORKS Development process to improve overall customer experience. Mark also hosts and organizes the SOLIDWORKS World AE Workshop for the past 10 years and The VAR Performance Tuning Workshops (VPTW) at company HQ.