Interesting read.
It's important that people understand all sorts of bugs exist in all processors, and that known bugs are documented by the manufacturer in said specifications, mainly intended for programmers. The details are highly technical, but the message is the same: "if you do X then Y then Z, the following problem will happen". Workarounds are often provided ("you can avoid this bug by doing Y then X then Z"), but in some cases, CPU microcode updates are required.
Said microcode updates are done in one of two places -- the BIOS or the OS (while the kernel loads). Generally speaking, the BIOS is a better place to do it (concept being: the sooner the better), but if your BIOS vendor doesn't provide such an update, you can sometimes find
microcode updaters that run on start-up.
The media these days often enjoys freaking out over any bugs listed in CPU errata PDFs, especially when "unstable system" is mentioned as the effect. It helps greatly if people step back and consider the context -- Intel and AMD both are well-known for providing assistance with regards to understanding said errata.
