Re: Can a computer virus kill the CPU?

mike4ty4@xxxxxxxxx writes:

Hi.

Consider a hypothetical computer virus that would cause a CPU to
overheat and burn up. Is this possible?

It'd be awfully hard to prove that such a thing would be impossible.

I'd instead pose the question of "has such a thing been reported on
any known platform/processor/OS combination." I know I haven't heard
of anything. As someone who's been on chip design teams and done
microsequencer design, I will say that it would be quite conceivable
for a microprocessor to have a design flaw whereby software could put
the microsequencer into a state that would lead to hardware failure.
And as you suggest, a flaw that allowed access to the BIOS could be
catastrophic that way, but with the plurality of BIOS implementations
out there, it'd be exceedingly difficult to create an attack that'd
take down a large number of targets.

Is it possible that we may see such a virus or worm in the future?

Certainly possible. Likely? I have my doubts, and I'm not going to
worry about it a whole lot.

Should BIOS overclocking be removed from computers?

No. And even if it "should" we won't see it happen because the
enthusiast market has too many $'s in it such that mobo manufacturers
won't go back to the days of jumpered clock configs and such.

It's an interesting question though.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/
.