[geezerjay]

IIRC Intel employs people to work on the linux kernel on behalf oh Intel. Either Intel fumbled or it isn't that easy to circumvent the problem plaging Intel's processors with a software hack.

[hinkley]

Or, they were holding out hope for a workaround that didn't make the entire Cloud 20% slower and they couldn't make it work.

[yndoendo]

Code for the solution and then code for performance. Direct performance coding is a bad return on investment.

First prove it works and then prove it can be made better and faster ...

[hinkley]

That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the person having to admit to a billion dollar mistake.

Everybody stalls for time when the stakes are this high. How long can I reasonably spend tying to turn this into a small problem before I have to go public with it?

Saying it’s a bigger problem than it turns out to be is a PR nightmare of its own. If there was a cheap fix then you cried wolf and killed your reputation just as dead.