That's an awesome solution they implemented there: "don't use LOCK."  Intel says "It's 2014, you don't need multi-threading!"

There's this assumption among many computer geeks (until today I was among them) that Intel is the chip "gold standard."  I _should_ have changed my mind on that after their spectacularly poor response to Spectre and Meltdown.  And then there's the security nightmare of the IME, a horribly insecure computer-within-your-computer.  But for some reason, I think this is the figurative straw that broke the camel's back: I'm going to be looking to other chip manufacturers after this.

All my vehemence and reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine shows that AMD has created their own IME-alike.  Security is a thing of the past ...