Has anyone got any idea what has changed in this update? The release notes don't even list it.
Intel, for many years, has released one final update of an older version some time after a newer one was released. I agree with Ian that this probably is related to https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/using-intel-compilers-to-mitigate-speculative-execution-side-channel-issues , but the discontinuance of "ReadMe" files means that you're unlikely to know just what the changes are. I see that the release notes haven't been published online.
I'll speculate that it has something to do with speculation.
(The email with the update notification confirms it:
Intel, for many years, has released one final update of an older version some time after a newer one was released. I agree with Ian that this probably is related to https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/using-intel-compilers-to-mitigate-speculative-execution-side-channel-issues , but the discontinuance of "ReadMe" files means that you're unlikely to know just what the changes are. I see that the release notes haven't been published online.
For more complete information about compiler optimizations, see our Optimization Notice.