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Re: Power if Internet

Oct 20, 1997 09:01 AM
by Vincent Beall


Bart Lidofsky wrote:
> 
> ramadoss@eden.com wrote:
> > Several months ago, Intel was the target when it had distributed bug ridden
> > chips and it was the incessant barrage from dedicated users which made them
> > relent and accept the fact and take action to replace. Initially Intel's
> > position was that the user had to demonstrate they have a problem with the
> > chip in the applications they use the computer for. It even ended up with
> > IRS issuing a notification that no one can claim that their tax return info
> > was erroneous due to the buggy chip!
> 
>         Your message shows the power of the media over truth. The error in
> Intel chips was so tiny, that if someone had a tax return of billions of
> dollars, any error caused by the chip would have been less than a penny.
> Unless you were using your computer for work with quantum mechanics,
> space travel, or astrophysics, the error was merely an academic
> curiousity, and would never touch anything you did. It's sort of like
> having a Ming Vase with a tiny chip on the inside, near the bottom. Yes,
> there is a flaw, but if you didn't know it was there, it would never
> affect your enjoyment of it.
> 
>         Maybe a couple of hundred people were affected by the flaw. Intel
> rightly did not wish to have to replace millions of chips to fix the
> problems of a couple of hundred. So they tried to ensure that those who
> wished the chip replaced did so because they ran applications where the
> error made a difference, not because they thought it was a K00L thing to
> stick it to the chipmaker.
> 
>         Bart Lidofsky

What a bunch of nonsense! Bart the chip didn't add correctly. All
operations of the CPU can be reduced to addition, complimentation, and
shifting. Addition is the only purely mathematical thing that it does.
There is no excuse for making such a mistake. As it turned out the chips
were replaced; there is justice after all!

Vincent
-- 

vincent@dmv.com

http://home.dmv.com/~vincent/


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