Intel has released production microcode updates to its OEM customers and partners for Kaby Lake- and Coffee Lake-based platforms, plus additional Skylake-based platforms, as part of the Spectre and Meltdown security patches.

Intel has released production microcode updates to its OEM customers and partners for Kaby Lake- and Coffee Lake-based platforms, plus additional Skylake-based platforms, as part of the Spectre and Meltdown security patches.

Software updates for the 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel Core product lines as well as the latest Intel Core X-series processor family, Intel Xeon Scalable and Intel Xeon D processors for data center systems have been validated, according to Intel.

The new microcode will be made available in most cases through OEM firmware updates, and Intel encourages people to always keep their systems up-to-date.

Intel says that in some cases, there are multiple mitigation techniques available that may provide protection against these exploits. This includes "Retpoline," a Google-developed mitigation technique for Variant 2. For those interested in more information on Retpoline and how it works, Intel has published a new white paper.