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Pentium Flaw

In: Computers and Technology

Submitted By firestorm
Words 250
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The Pentium Flaw was in Intel’s Pentium Chip. The flaw was in the chips floating-point unit around the 9th digit to the right of the decimal place. The flaw was discovered by Intel testers in June 1994. The company decided that this wouldn’t affect very many people so they decided to keep quiet about it. This would hurt them in the long run because it made people suspicious of them since they kept it a secret and it ended up costing the company millions.
Wed Oct. 19 Dr. Thomas Nicely tests several 486 and Pentium based computers and figures out for certain that the error is caused by the Pentium processor. He then contacts Intel to tell them what he has discovered and Intel states that they already knew. Sunday, Oct 30 after receiving no more info from Intel Dr. Nicely emails a few people about his “discovery” of the bug. Nov. 29 – Dec. 11 Intel receives thousands of messages and calls saying Intel misses the point, they become a laughingstock on the internet. Dec. 14 Intel releases a white paper trying to explain the situation, too late. Intel is flooded with tens of thousands messages and calls from angry and worried customers. Then finally on Dec. 20 Intel apologizes and says they will replace the flawed chip upon request. If Intel would have just admitted to the flaw in the first place then they could have saved themselves a lot of embarrassment and a lot of money.

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