Author here: This is not a common problem. I think I was told that Alpha had basically the same bug but it is a bug, for sure. Speculative execution causing problematic side effects is a deal killer.
Speculative execution, however, can cause less problematic side effects. For instance, a speculatively executed load or prefetch will usually actually prefetch which will pollute the cache, TLB, etc., and reveal side-band information, but that is a performance problem and perhaps a subtle security flaw, not a correctness bug like this was.
Speculative execution, however, can cause less problematic side effects. For instance, a speculatively executed load or prefetch will usually actually prefetch which will pollute the cache, TLB, etc., and reveal side-band information, but that is a performance problem and perhaps a subtle security flaw, not a correctness bug like this was.