Intel Working on Fix for Virgin Media SuperHub 3 Router Latency Bug
Broadband routers that make use of Intel’s Puma 6 chipset, such as the one inside of Virgin Media’s latest SuperHub 3 cable router, appear to suffer from a nasty bug that causes latency spikes and packet loss. But don’t worry, a firmware update is coming.
Various models of router make use of Puma 6, such as the Arris Surfboard SB6190, the Hitron CGNV4, Compal CH7465-LG and several other devices from Linksys and Cisco. Unfortunately it’s been found that a glitch in this chipset causes latency and packet loss, which appear to be particularly noticeable on ultrafast broadband connections like the ones offered by Virgin Media’s fastest package(s).
According to The Register, the Intel x86 CPU inside the modem component of the router is taking on too much work while processing network packets. The result is that the chipset runs a high-priority maintenance task every few seconds, which briefly occupies the CPU and this in turn causes a momentary spike in latency (increases of 200 milliseconds+) and some data packets end up being dropped. Not good for multiplayer video games.
The Community Forum for Virgin Media highlights the issue here and here , but fear not because a fix is on the way.
An Intel Spokesman said:
“We are aware of an issue with the Puma 6 system-on-chip software that impacts latency and are working to address it.”
Some of Virgin Media’s customers claim that the issue was first spotted all the way back in 2015, during early trials of the SuperHub 3 hardware, although this appears to have become more noticeable now that the chipset is in mainstream use. But when is the new Firmware actually due to drop? Nobody seems able to say, yet.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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finally they speak out better be fixed soon doing my head in haha
lets hope that fixing this doesnt then re-introduce the Modem mode on Arris CMTS issue. Given that this took them 6 months to fix, i expect at least 9 for this fix (3 for intel, 6 for Virgin)
Agreed hope they don’t that was a pain to the moderm mode bug I was on the trail of the sh3 was painful
I remember similar issues with the SH2’s which contained the Puma 5…. this was never confirmed as an issue with intels chip though and seemed to get fixed ‘eventually’
Shoddy experience with virgin media, prices rising all the time and such a crap performance. Time to look elsewhere
How about a fix for Superhub2 AC is the same CPUs or the variant before it, packet loss is enough