Preview

Pentium Flaw Research Paper

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
314 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Pentium Flaw Research Paper
Pentium Flaw
Parker Hebert
Ms. Heath
10/22/13

Pentium Flaw

June 1994: Intel testers discover a division error in the Pentium chip. Intel managers decide that the error will not affect many people and do not inform anyone outside the company. This was Intel's first mistake. The company was right in that the division error could affect only a few customers, but not disclosing the information made Intel appear to hide a sinister secret. It sent the message to customers that Intel was not trustworthy. Disclosing the flaw upon discovery would have created only minor news, on the same low level as an automaker announcing a minor defect. The same month, Dr. Thomas R. Nicely, a professor

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The flaw was first discovered in June 1994, when Intel engineers first noticed that the floating-point unit (FPU) on the chip gave the wrong answer. However future tests done by Intel showed that the error appeared only in the ninth significant digit of the answer and affected a very, very small percentage of possible division combinations. The results of this flaw…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The “Pentium flaw” or the Pentium FDIV bug was when Intel released defective Pentium processors. The defect was malfunctioning P5 Pentium floating point unit causing the computer to calculate division incorrectly. The “bug” was discovered by Professor Thomas Nicely when working on mathematical equations and noticed many inconsistencies in his calculations when he added a Pentium based computer on June, 13, 1994. Intel tried to keep the bug out of the lime light while they worked on updates to try and fix the problem but, persistent consumers kept pushing the issue on the internet and in magazines.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This information was hidden from the public and was noted safe for public release. Some of the problems that this causes is that not only has it demonstrated…

    • 176 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    admitted to Intel being aware of the flaw since May 1994. The flaw was discovered by…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frozen Rock Solid

    • 957 Words
    • 3 Pages

    (Source: Livesey, B (1997, November). Glitch doctor. Report on Business Magazine, pp.96-102. Reprinted with permission of Bruce Livesey.…

    • 957 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The internet bubble that burst in March, 2000 is followed with much larger and more devastating collapse: Telecom. WorldCom’s financial statements were far worse than expectation that would result in stock price fall, downgrading company and most importantly—losing capital to acquire companies. Then CEO and CFO were planning to change the financial statements with mid-level accountants. They thought if the financial statements were better in next quarter, they could cover the change. But things didn’t go according to plan. They had to change the number until the whistle blew.…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Back in June, 1994 the Pentium Flaw was noticed by Intel testers, who had discovered a division error on the Pentium chip. Intel managers didn’t see this as a major problem so they kept this from anyone outside their corporation. The nature of this issue was a mathematical problem in their Floating Point Unit (FPU), or the math coprocessor. The Pentium chip was having glitches in calculating large divisions. It wasn’t until October 19th, when Dr. Thomas R. Nicely had revealed the malfunction of the (FPU) trying to do certain calculations. Dr. Nicely was a mathematics teacher at Lynchburg College in Virginia. After running several test on the 486 and Pentium he had pin pointed the error to the Pentium chip. Dr. Nicely contacted Intel and they had confirmed the error, but said they had no reports till then. Intel handled the situation very poorly; they would not return contact to Dr. Nicely, forcing him to write a…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unit 5 research paper

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Worst of all is that Intel knew all about this flaw but told no one. They kept it a secret…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As entrepreneurs in a growing world of technology and change Andy Grove and Michael Dell pioneered the industry. They were innovators, visionaries and industry leaders in their fields. Andy Grove envisioned change to create faster and more productive ways to utilize the way we process information. As an immigrant he passed through the walls of terror in his home country of Hungry which was facing many issues of destruction that the Nazi’s enforced. He fled to the United States in the 1960’s to create a better life and future for himself. Andy established a small company that he called Intel which created an immense new future for the computer technology. His contributions awarded him the esteem acknowledgement as Time Magazine’s person of the year. He pursued his dreams as all inventors to create products and progress in the ever-changing need for new technology. Andy Grove created the chip and the microprocessor that allowed information to be processed much faster and smaller in size. Mr. Dell also an inventor at an early age set up a laboratory in his dorm room while attending college to create his personal computer. His success with the personal computer caught on quick because he used a direct theory to include his customer in the structure of his product. Michael Dell believed that understanding his customer’s needs and issues would enable Dell to create good competitive products. He believed that cutting the middlemen out of the sales market would allow him that advantage. With that direct approach Dell was able to endure many obstacles as…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    But, the actual compromise data did not fall into the criteria of what the law required for notifications. This created an ethical dilemma for the Executive team, just because the law states that notification does not require notification for the data type in the breach. But, the heavy-handed control of the Executive staff team, he forced public notification that a larger number of data elements were compromised, under protest of other Officers. Even though the first notification was not correct, the media decided to combine both notifications and came to the conclusion of how many data elements were access during the breach. With the prevailing news stories, correct or not, Target’s reputation and sales suffered, Chief Marketing Officer Jeffrey Jones summed it up the best, “That’s hammering us” (Kinicki & Williams, 2013, pg. 37,…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Wouldn't you want to create and operate nuclear plants and machinery. Nuclear engineers work to harness and use the energy given off from nuclear reactions. Nuclear engineers work, monitor, and create new nuclear powered things that humanity can use. Since 1939, the use of nuclear powered devices and machines have been in use, and is growing continually. That is why I want to be a nuclear engineer.…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Intel Case Analysis

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Intel the Microprocessor giant was started in the year 1968, their initial venture was to make a semiconductor computer memory by integrating large number of transistors into silicon chips. They created a revolution in the PC industry, by creating a bench mark and reengineered their processes to shift their focus from the saturated PC dominated industry to the Internet Communications World. From time to time many marketing tactics and strategies were implemented in order to create brand equity and to carve a niche image in the consumer’s mind. These campaigns were carried out successfully and the intended output was gained most of the time.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Boundryless Org

    • 1479 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Developers working on hardware in different locations had a communication breakdown which required many hours of discussion to resolve which could have been avoided if they were all on the same track. The developers seldom met face to face and all made progress but all of them moved in different directions with the product development.…

    • 1479 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    70interesting Circuits

    • 4848 Words
    • 20 Pages

    We have already presented a set of pages called "Spot The Mistake," showing dozens of faulty circuits and how to check and test things before releasing them. It is surprising that a magazine with a readership of over 1,000,000 could publish items with glaring faults.…

    • 4848 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fairness and Honesty

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Dunn, Darrell, and Laurie Sullivan. "AMD Charges Intel With Bullying, Bribing." InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology. 04 July 2005. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. <http://www.informationweek.com/news/165600305>.…

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays