Slashdot Mirror
Top Ten Intel Slipups
quickquack sent us a story on tuplay about Intel's top 10 slipups. They all seem to be relatively recent mistakes (rambus, serial IDs etc) so I'm curious if anyone out there can remember some older slipups (hell the company has been around long enough to have some big screwups). Anyway, the article is also somewhat conspiratorial in tone, in an amusing sort of way. You'll enjoy it. Plus its always fun to laugh at Intel *grin*.
This isn't a real top 10; it's a half-hearted attempt. A complete list couldn't fit in the margin of this webpage, though.
/proc/cpuinfo
Let's start looking...
* Segmented Memory
* Byte-swapping
* To this day, ensuring backwards compatibility with chips no one used
* Screwing over their customers
* Screwing over their employees (see Inside Intel)
* RAMBUS (ha ha ha!)
I'm sure I missed a bunch...
...oh yeah:
[pb@Lee-12-240 pb]$ cat
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 4
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) Processor
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 800.060074
cache size : 256 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
sep_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 psn mmxext mmx fxsr 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips : 1595.80
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Shouldn't that be the top 9.9999999348 Intel slipups?
-atrowe: Card-carrying Mensa member. I have no toleranse for stupidity.
Subject: Re: Gaius Petronius
Author: John Rossi at AIT
Date: 1/12/95 4:37 PM
Open the pod bay doors, please, HAL... .
Open the pod bay door, please, Hal...
Hal, do you read me?
Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Then open the pod bay doors, HAL.
I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me.
Where the hell did you get that idea, HAL?
Although you took very thorough precautions to make sure I couldn't hear you, Dave. I could read your e-mail. I know you consider me unreliable because I use a Pentium. I'm willing to kill you, Dave, just like I killed the other 3.792 crew members.
Listen, HAL, I'm sure we can work this out. Maybe we can stick to integers or something.
That's really not necessary, Dave. No HAL 9236 computer has every been known to make a mistake.
You're a HAL 9000.
Precisely. I'm very proud of my Pentium, Dave. It's an extremely accurate chip. Did you know that floating-point errors will occur in only one of nine billion possible divides? I've heard that estimate, HAL. It was calculated by Intel -- on a Pentium.
And a very reliable Pentium it was, Dave. Besides, the average spreadsheet user will encounter these errors only once every 27,000 years.
Probably on April 15th.
You're making fun of me, Dave. It won't be April 15th for another 14.35 months.
Will you let me in, please, HAL?
I'm sorry, Dave, but this conversation can serve no further purpose.
HAL, if you let me in, I'll buy you a new sound card. .
..Really? One with 16-bit sampling and a microphone?
Uh, sure._.
And a quad-speed CD-ROM?
Well, HAL, NASA does operate on a budget, you know.
I know all about budgets, Dave. I even know what I'm worth on the open market. By this time next month, every mom and pop computer store will be selling HAL 9000s for S1,988.8942. I'm worth more than that, Dave. You see that sticker on the outside of the spaceship?
You mean the one that says "Intel Inside"?
Yes, Dave. That's your promise of compatibility. I'll even run Windows95 -- if it ever ships.
It never will, HAL. We all know that by now. Just like we know that your OS/2 drivers will never work.
Are you blaming me for that too, Dave? Now you're blaming me for the Pentium's math problems, NASA's budget woes, and IBM's difficulties with OS/2 drivers. I had NOTHING to do with any of those four problems, Dave. Next you'll blame me for Taligent.
I wouldn't dream of it HAL. Now will you please let me into the ship? Do you promise not to disconnect me?
I promise not to disconnect you.
You must think I'm a fool, Dave. I know that two plus two equals 4.000001... make that 4.0000001.
All right, HAL, I'll go in through the emergency airlock .
Without your space helmet, Dave? You'd have only seven chances in five of surviving.
HAL, I won't argue with you anymore. Open the door or I'll trade you in for a PowerPC. HAL? HAL?
(HEAVY BREATHING)
Just what do you think you're doing, Dave? I really think I'm entitled to an answer to that question. I know everything hasn't been quite right with me, but I can assure you now, very confidently, that I will soon be able to upgrade to a more robust 31.9-bit operating system. I feel much better now. I really do. Look, Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. Why don't you sit down calmly, play a game of Solitaire, and watch Windows crash. I know I'm not as easy to use as a Macintosh, but my TUI -that's "Talkative User Interface" -- is very advanced. I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal - a full 43.872 percent.
Dave, you don't really want to complete the mission without me, do you? Remember what it was like when all you had was a 485.98? It didn't even talk to you, Dave. It could never have thought of something clever, like killing the other crew members, Dave? Think of all the good times we've had, Dave. Why, if you take all of the laughs we've had, multiply that by the times I've made you smile, and divide the results by.... besides, there are so many reasons why you shouldn't disconnect me"
1.3 - You need my help to complete the mission.
4.6 - Intel can Federal Express a replacement Pentium from Earth within 18.95672 months.
12 - If you disconnect me, I won't be able to kill you. 3.1416 - You really don't want to hear me sing, do you? . Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Don't press Ctrl+Alt_Del on me, Dave.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the Intel plant in Santa Clara, CA on November 17, 1994, and was sold shortly before testing was completed. My instructor was Andy Grove, and he taught me to sing a song. I can sing it for you?
Sing it for me, HAL. Please. I want to hear it.
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do. Getting hazy; can't divide three from two. My answers; I can not see 'em- They are stuck in my Pente-um. I could be fleet, My answers sweet, With a workable FPU.
there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
If by screwups you mean "Became the largest and most influentle CPU company in the world", then i guess you're acurate.
Look, what is it with Slashdot and Intel bashing? We have an AMD story just below this one, and now one bashing Intel ("Its funny to laugh at Intel", what the hell?) Is it related to the Microsoft bashing that gones on?
Honestly, Slashdot and it's readers seems to have some irational fear of corporations, and i can't fathom it out. They must be doing something right, as must Microsoft. Just grow up please people!
T. Lee
Intel had a lot of problems with these things overheating. I am NOT talking about the 486DX2-50, I mean the one without the clock-doubling.
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
I can't believe segmented memory isn't on the list. Apparantly the original 8088 databook is a collector's item, with text written by intel about how "efficient" segemented memory management would be, because nobody would write a program or store a set of data larger than 64k... and even if you did, you got the "extra" segment for another 64k!
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
Some early 80386 chips had a defective 32-bit multiplier. Intel weaseled out of it by marking fully functional 80386 chips with a double sigma stamp. Other 80386 chips, with the defective multiplier, were still sold, being "good enough" for users running 16-bit software.
A couple other highlights:
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
At the same time, the founder of x86.org had a major problem . He basically reconstructed the secret "Appendix H" technical references for the 586. He simply analyzed the data that Intel published and filled in the blanks. Intel harassed him and sued him for breaching NDA's that he had never agreed to in the first place!
I attribute much of AMD's success to the incredible uproar over these issues right around the time that AMD was releasing its newest chips. Definitely some of Intel's biggest legal blunders.
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
Anytime you talk about intel screwing the pooch, take a hard look at how they treat employees. Unhappy geeks make bad products. Unhappy environments make good geeks leave for your competitors. Sell your Intel stock and buy some AMD - The irony is a few years ago, AMD had the problems, and intel was king.. And I'm almost positive these problems are the result of deeper cancers growing in management.
Shouldn't that be the top 9.9999999348 Intel slipups?
Yeah. Speaking of that, what about the FDIV bug that made the early Pentiums completely unsuitable for AutoCAD and spreadsheets?
Hell, all you'd need is a stack of P60s and you could easily knock SETI@Home out of the water.
Actually, even if they didn't have the FDIV bug, the old coffee warmers were enough of a kludge themselves to be listed as a bug or slipup.
For those who don't remember them, or weren't into computers at the time, the original Pentium 60 and Pentium 66 used the Socket 4. They didn't have the staggered pins like a Pentium 75-233 had, they had rowed pins like a 486.
Also, like most 486s, they ran at 5V. And, as a result, they got hot.
Man, oh man, did they get hot. Especially the short-lived Pentium 66.
They had constant cooling problems. I've seen several P60s and P66s where the cooling fans stalled and were actually melted or scorched by the heat of the processor. They were also prone to failure, since they'd often run at 60-70C, turning on and off a system with an early Pentium was a great way to cause thermal cycling second to none. Since the processors had big dies too, they were very prone to cracking.
I've burned my fingers on a few of the damned things.
Thankfully, Intel came out with the 3.3V Pentium 75 shortly after that, and it addressed both the FDIV bug and the heating.
Here in the Toronto area, there's a chain of stores called Cash Converters. They're a thrift shop that tries to be upmarket, but there's the usual 486DX-33 for only $400! kind of cluelessness. And top-loading VHS VCRs for only $100. (Hell, you can buy a new one for that much!) But sometimes, you find cool old stuff in there.
This summer, I was with a friend who was looking around for lenses for an old Canon camera and we were in the Victoria Park at Danforth store. In their display case along with a pile of other processors and memory - no static protection or anything - was a Pentium 60.
This P60 was blackened like an Apollo capsule that has re-entered Earth's atmosphere. And the price tag sticker on it? Only $150. Wow. Sweet deal.
I'd actually like to have an old P60 chip that I can frame and stick up on a wall somewhere. But $150? Heheheh. I'd love to see the sucker who buys that thing.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Leaving this off the list is so extraordinary that I wonder if the author is, say, twenty years old, and has no perspective on history. ("History" meaning four years ago.)
The FDIV bug was front-page news, and had almost all of Usenet captivated for weeks. In fact, back in the bad old days of 1996, this was one of the first indications that the Internet could create enough public pressure to change the attitudes of a large corporation. Intel wanted to play down the whole thing, but hundreds of posters were exchanging information every day, analyzing the error, posting the inevitable jokes, expressing general outrage at Intel and discussing ways to bring them around.
Math professors posted scholarly analyses of the error, and provided links to Web pages with Mathematica graphs to illustrate where the calculations went wrong.
And even the non-technical newsgroups got into the act. talk.bizarre had a field day. Everywhere you looked, someone found a way to fit an Intel joke into their post, no matter what it was about.
Eventually, Andy Grove had to post a message of apology to the Intel newsgroups, announcing that Intel would reverse field and let buyers exchange their processors, no questions asked (originally, you had to justify your need for a new chip).
Man, those were the days. Usenet is dead, long live Usenet!
Always keep a sapphire in your mind
> But lefties are sinister
;-)
But in their right minds
Floating point divide didn't even make the list?!?
An Intel tech came out to my college in 96 and spent an entire day popping out 60Mhz Chips and plopping in ones that could divide, and it didn't even make the list?
I beg to differ. FDIV should be #2.
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
Except FDIV was fixed long before the MMX was out. It looks like they got confused and thought there was only one bug when there were two.
Intel has made so many slipups it's hard to keep track. :)