...Unit 5 Analysis1: Pentium Flaw In June 1994, Intel discovered the floating-point unit flaw in the Pentium microprocessor. Professor Thomas Nicely, a professor of mathematics at the Lynchburg College, had written code to enumerate primes, twin primes, prime triplets, and prime quadruplets. Professor Thomas Nicely noticed some inconsistencies in the calculations on June 13th , 1994 shortly after adding a Pentium system to his group of computers, but was unable to eliminate other possible factors (such as programming errors, motherboard chipsets, etc.) until October 19, 1994. On October 24th, 1994 he reported the flaw he encountered to Intel. According to Professor Thomas Nicely, the person that he contacted at Intel later admitted to Intel being aware of the flaw since May 1994. The flaw was discovered by Intel during testing of the FPU for its new P6 core, which was first used in the Pentium Pro. Professor Thomas Nicely sent an email describing the flaw that he had discovered in the Pentium floating point unit (FPU) to various contacts, requesting reports of testing for the flaw on the 486-DX4s, Pentium and the Pentium clones. The flaw in the Pentium FPU (floating-point unit) was quickly verified by other people around the Internet, and became known as the Pentium FDIV bug (FDIV is the x86 assembly language instruction for floating point division). An example of the flaw was found where the division result returned by the Pentium microprocessor was off by about 61 parts per million...
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...The Pentium flaw was discovered in June 1994. The Pentium floating point flaw occurred in some models of the original Pentium microprocessor chip. Pentium processors with a clock speed of 120 MHz or higher are not affected by the flaw. The Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility checks for the floating point flaw on the affected microprocessors. Professor Thomas Nicely discovered the Pentium floating point unit flaw and emailed various contacts describing the flaw. Professor Nicely requested testing for the flaw on the 486-DX4s, and the Pentium clones. The flaw in in the Pentium floating point unit was verified and became known as the FDIV bug. The issue was a mathematical problem in the Floating Point (FPU), the math coprocessor. The Pentium chip had glitches when calculation large divisions. Testing on the 486 pin pointed the error to the Pentium Chip. Intel confirmed the error but said they had no other reports of it. Intel the considered the flaw as a minor problem and did not let the industry know about the flaw. However word of the flaw got out through the internet and articles and Intel started getting negative publicly. Intel handled did not handle the problem with the flaw correctly. By considering the flaw minor to avoid fixing the problem and negative publicly, Intel showed poor judgment and integrity as a company. Intel only attempted to fix the flaw after receiving negative publicly. To satisfy customers concerned about the flaw Intel fix the problem...
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...1110 October 22, 2013 The Pentium Flaw During the year of 1994 one of Intel’s processors called the Pentium microprocessor chip had a small flaw inside the chip. These Pentium processors included something new called a floating-point unit, which is also know as a math coprocessor. These Pentium processors had this floating-point unit built into the processors, which makes them much faster. These chips that were made had errors on the floating-point unit that corrupted instructions for division. This cased the Floating-point unit to divide certain floating-point numbers incorrectly. This Pentium flaw was most know from an equation solved by Tim Coe of Vitesse Semiconductors. The number he tried to divide was 4195835 by 3145727. The value that was outputted by the computer was incorrect by 0.006%. Thomas Nicely, a math professor at Lynchburg College was computing the sum of the reciprocals of a large collection of prime numbers on one of Intel’s Pentium-based computers. He calculated the same equation on a different program and then traced the problem back to the Pentium itself. Nicely contacted Intel and didn’t get any real response to the problem. He then posted on the Internet asking others to confirm the problem he had found. Nicely was interviewed with a magazine and CNN aired a story about by his findings. After Nicely’s findings, Intel publicly announced “an error is only likely to occur [about] once in nine billion random floating point dividers” and that “an average...
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...In June, 1994 the media came out with a story that one of Intel’s Pentium microprocessors had a floating point unit flaw (FPU). This flaw had to do with a math calculation that gave out wrong number after you put in an equation. The story about this flaw came to light after Professor by the name of Thomas Nicely, who was a mathematics professor at Lynchburg collage. Nicely was trying to compute the sum of a reciprocal of a large group of prime numbers on his Pentium based computer. When he checked the results they were different by a large amount from the theoretical values. By running the same test program on a different computer with a 486CPU, he came up with the right numbers this lead him to be able to track down the error to the Pentium itself. After finding the problem Nicely send out an email to Intel describing the problem that he had come across in his test. The email stated that there was a flaw in the Pentium floating point unit (FPU). With no response back from Intel Nicely posted a general notice on the internet asking people to confirm his findings. When the media got wind of this story Nicely did some magazine and T.V interviews about what his test resolute showed him. The flaw in the Pentium flaw was not an isolated incident the flaw was quickly verified by other people around the world in the scientific community, which became referred to as the Pentium FDIV bug. When the story first broke Intel’s initial response was to deny that there was a kind of a problem...
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...Unit 5 Analysis 1 : Pentium Flaw The Pentium microprocessor is the CPU (central processing unit) for the widest selling personal computers. Unlike previous CPUs made by Intel, the 486DX and Pentium chips came along with a floating-point unit (FPU) also known as the math co-processor. Previous Intel CPUs did all their arithmetic using integers; programs that used floating-point numbers (non-integers like 2.5 or 3.14) needed to tell the chip how (for example) to divide them using integer arithmetic. The 486DX and Pentium chips have these instructions built into the chip, in their FPUs. This makes them much faster for intense numerical calculations, more complex, and more expensive. The problem for Intel is that all Pentiums manufactured until sometime this fall had errors in the on-chip FPU instructions for division. This caused the Pentium's FPU to incorrectly divide certain floating-point numbers. Many software packages, including many that do use floating-point numbers, don't actually use a computer's FPU. These packages don't show the error. Also, only certain numbers (whose binary representation show specific bit patterns) divide incorrectly. Consequently many users may never encounter the division error. The most famous example and the worst well-known case is 4195835/3145727, discovered by Tim Coe of Vitesse Semiconductors. The correct value is 1.33382 to 6 sig. figs, while the flawed Pentium's floating-point unit computed 1.33374 to 6 sig figs, a relative error of 0.006%...
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...Valeras-NT1110 Friday, April 18, 2014 Unit 5 Analysis 1: Pentium Flaw Pentium purpose and functions was that it was a microprocessor in the CPU and the chip included a floating point unit FPU also known as a math coprocessor. Unlike the old Intel CPUs that did arithmetic using integers, this was a program that used floating point number. The Pentium chips have the instructions built into the chip which was in the FPUs. It made the Pentium must faster for intense numerical calculations. It’s was more complex and was more expensive than the others. Only to discover a problem with Pentium was that it was incorrectly dividing certain floating point numbers. Fall of 1994, Intel Pentium had a major flaw in there system and was discovered by a professor at Lynchburg College. Thomas Nicely, a math professor discovered a flaw on Intel’s Pentium when he was computing the sum of a reciprocal of a large collection of prime numbers. He checked his computations and discovered his results differ from his theoretical values. He then got correct answers when he ran the same program on a computer with a 486 CPU. There is when he realized an error in the Pentium. Thomas did not receive any responds from Intel only after he posted a general notice on the Internet asking for others to confirm his findings. That’s when Magazine and CNN interviewed him. Intel publicly announced and I Quote ‘’an error is only to likely occur about once in nine billion random floating point divides”, and that “an average...
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...Ariel Torrente NT1110 Unit 5 Analysis Pentium Flaw Ariel Torrente NT1110 Unit 5 Analysis 7/27/2013 Pentium Flaw The Pentium flaw also nicknamed the Pentium FDIV bug, was an identified error in the Intel P5 Pentium floating unit. The presence of the bug can be checked manually by performing the following application that uses native floating numbers, including Windows Calculator or Microsoft Excel in Windows 95/98 (Pentium FDIV bug). The Pentium flaw was discovered byProfessor Thomas R.Nicely at Lynchburg Collwge,Virginia USA (Emery, Vince). Dr.Thomas R Nicely is a mathematic professor, noticed a small difference in two sets of numbers, he always double-checks his work by computing everything twice, two different ways (Emery, Vince). Dr.Nicely spent months successively eliminating possible causes such as PCI bus errors and compiler artifacts (Emery, Vince). Intel wanted to keep to keep the Pentium flaw a secret, after Intel testers discovered a division error in the Pentium chip (Emery, Vince). Intel managers decided that the error wouldn’t affect many people, therefore no one outside of the company was not informed (Emery, Vince). The pandemonium over Intel’s Pentium chip cost the company millions of dollars and could have been prevented and became an uproar on the internet (Emery, Vince). This was Intel’s first mistake and the company was given a reputation that made Intel not a trustworthy company and not disclosing that information made them seem to be hiding a...
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...“The Pentium Microprocessor Flaw” Jamaal Bonner April 25, 2014 NT1110/Computer Structure and Logic Professor Marcus Price The Pentium Microprocessor Flaw The Pentium microprocessor is the CPU (central processing unit) developed by Intel. Pentium chips include a floating-point unit (FPU) that has integrated instructions that tell the chip how to compute integer arithmetic, making them much faster [for heavy numerical calculations], more complex, and more expensive. The problem for Intel is that all Pentiums manufactured until sometime in fall of 1994 had errors in the on-chip FPU instructions for division. This caused the Pentium's FPU to incorrectly divide certain floating-point numbers. Many software packages don't actually use a computer's FPU. These packages don't show the error and only certain numbers divide incorrectly. Thomas Nicely, a math professor at Lynchburg College, discovered the flaw in the Pentium’s FPU in summer/fall 1994. He computed the sum of the reciprocals of a large collection of prime numbers on his Pentium-based computer and found the result differed largely from theoretical values. Nicely posted a general notice of the flaw on the Internet and asked others to confirm his findings after receiving no response from Intel, which ultimately led to magazine and television interviews. Intel publicly announced that the subtle error would only occur to an average spreadsheet user once in every 27,000 years of use. Critics noted that the Pentium’s...
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...Unit 5 Analysis 1: Pentium Flaw The Intel Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March, 1993 that was hugely popular among consumers because of its cheap price and decent performance. Unfortunately, the early versions of these microprocessors had a flow within the floating point unit (also called a math coprocessor). This caused the Pentium's FPU to incorrectly divide certain floating-point numbers. Because only certain numbers divide incorrectly and Intel assumed that many users would never encounter the division error, the company decided to keep the issue quiet and fix the problem in updates to the chip. Thomas Nicely, a math professor at Lynchburg College, discovered the error however, and after sending his findings to Intel with no response, he posted his findings on the Internet, where others confirmed his theories. When Intel finally announced the bug, they originally said that they would only replace chips for users that require high-accuracy calculations, but when IBM publically refused to sell computers with faulty chips, Intel offered to replace all flawed Pentium processors. Because Intel chose to keep the flaw quiet, and because they originally refused to recall the product, they caused a great public outcry. Their mistakes also ended up costing them over $475 million and damaged their image. Intel now currently post all flaws and bugs that they find in their products in order to avoid another catastrophe like the Pentium Flaw. Other companies also take this...
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...Pentium Flaw The Pentium Microprocessor is the widest selling personal computers on the market. Intel created the 486DX and the Pentium chip that included Floating point unit (FPU). This FPU was known as a math co-processor. The problem arose in the fall of 1994, all the new Pentium chips were manufactured with an error in the FPU system. This error was in the FPU instructions for the division. This caused the chip to divide certain numbers incorrectly. Intel engineers discovered a flaw in the floating-point math subsection of the Pentium processor. But instead of assessing this problem they simply ignored it and thought that the customers would not ever notice the flaw. Thomas Nicely discovered this problem also when he was computing the sum of large reciprocals of prime numbers on his Pentium base computer. Later on Thomas emailed Intel and told them that there was a flaw in the co-processor. Intel never responded back so he took it to his own hands and posted the flaw online, asking other people to check for the flaw also on other users computers. Many people responded back and the news got involved sooner or later Intel started receiving more and more emails about the flaw. A common Known error was 4195825/3145727 dividing those numbers gave an incorrect answer to the problem. Intel’s response to this flaw was to replace Pentium chip microprocessor to whoever could explain the flaw to them. This angered man of the customers so Intel responded by replacing them...
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...The Pentium flaw was discovered by Thomas Nicely. The nature of the flaw was that it wouldn’t divide correctly using FPU (floating-point unit).The flaw was found in 1994, when he was computing the sum of the reciprocals of a large collection of prime numbers on his Pentium-based computer. Checking his work, he found the result differed from his original answer. He got correct results by running the same program on a computer with a 486 CPU, and finally tracked the error to the Pentium itself. Intel announced that "an error is only likely to occur about once in nine billion random floating point divides, and that an average spreadsheet user could encounter this subtle flaw once in every 27,000 years of use." It first publicly admitted the problem November 28 1994, and that they would replace Pentium chips only for those who could explain their need of high accuracy in complex calculations. Great public outcry ensued and by late December Intel capitulated and announced a free replacement Pentium for any owner who asked for one. In my opinion Intel did not handle the situation correctly at first and then corrected their mistake later on. Originally Intel should have made sure that the Pentium worked correctly to begin with. After the flaw was found, they should have tested it themselves and told the public the truth instead of lying about it. This caused them to lose face when they were proved wrong. In response to customers’ outrage they decided to provide a free replacement...
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...Marcos Corpas 1/18/2016 NT1110 Unit 5 Analysis 1: Pentium Flaw The Pentium processor flaw was a flaw in the floating-point math subsection of the Pentium microprocessor. When certain conditions were met low order bits of the result of floating-point division operations would be incorrect, an error that can quickly compound in floating-point operations to much larger errors in subsequent calculations. Intel corrected the problem in a future revision, but they refused to disclose it. The mathematics professor at Lynchburg College who discovered the flaw was Dr. Thomas Nicely. Dr. Nicely then had an inquiry with Intel and upon not receiving any response from them he posted about the flaw on October 30th 1994 online. Word quickly spread of the flaw and Intel responded by saying that the bug was minor and “not even an erratum”. Since the bug was easy to replicate by the average user, Intel's response about the bug was not accepted by many computer users. When New York Times Journalist John Markoff ran a piece that spotlighted the error, Intel in response to the media coverage changed its position on the matter and offered to replace every faulty chip. Intel put in place a large end-user support organization. This resulted in a five hundred million dollar charge against Intel's 1994 revenue. Interestingly enough, the attention paid to the Intel Pentium Processor Flaw made Intel go from a seemingly unknown computer supplier to a regular household name. The incident is considered by...
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...Unit 5 Analysis 1: Pentium Flaw Intel Corporation discovered a design flaw in June of 1994 in its flagship Pentium Processor. For divisions involving a few specific numbers, the chip's floating point unit gave the wrong answer. Intel's tests showed that the error only appeared in the ninth significant digit of the answer and affected only a minuscule percentage of the possible division combinations. Intel did not handle the problem correctly, they consider the flaw to be “minor” .They said that it wasn’t the first time a flaw of this nature happened so Intel continued to sell hundreds of thousands of chips that were already made. Intel pretty much ignored the flaw and did nothing to satisfy its consumer. Dr. Thomas contacted Intel’s technical support in October of the same year and had no luck, so he decided to post the problem in a blog, which brought immediate attention to Intel. At the beginning Intel said that that they will only replace the flawed chip only for those users that work with heavy duty scientific/floating point calculations since the problem did not affected everyone else using simple mathematics. Later that year after the increased coverage by worldwide print and electronic media, Intel fear and decided to recall the chip on December 20, 1994. Intel decided to offer a replacement chip to all of its end-users—"no questions asked." Intel took a $475 million loss for the replacement program. In today’s society I think it would be mostly impossible for...
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...Pentium Flaw The Pentium microprocessor is the CPU for the widest selling personal computers. Unlike previous CPUs made by Intel, the 486DX and Pentium chips came along with a floating-point unit also known as the math co-processor. Previous Intel CPUs did all their arithmetic using integers; programs that used floating-point numbers needed to tell the chip how to divide them using integer arithmetic. The 486DX and Pentium chips have these instructions built into the chip, in their FPUs. This makes them much faster for intense numerical calculations, more complex, and more expensive. The problem for Intel is that all Pentiums manufactured until sometime this fall had errors in the on-chip FPU instructions for division. This caused the Pentium's FPU to incorrectly divide certain floating-point numbers. Dr. Thomas Nicely, Professor of Mathematics at Lynchburg College independently discovered the bug, and upon receiving no response from his inquiry to Intel, on October 30 posted a message on the Internet. Word of the bug spread quickly on the Internet and then to the industry press. Because the bug was easy to replicate by an average user Intel's statements that it was minor and "not even an erratum" were not accepted by many computer users. Intel's policy, when it first publicly admitted the problem around November 28 of 1994, was to replace Pentium chips only for those who could explain their need of high accuracy in complex calculations. Public outcry ensued in response...
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...Pentium Flaw There once was a microprocessor built by Intel that had certain issues. It became infamously known as the “Bug” in the Intel Pentium floating point unit also called Pentium FDIV bug or more commonly known as The Pentium Flaw. The error was very rarely seen by consumers, (1 in 9 billion floating point divide with random parameters would produce inaccurate results) Ref. Wikipedia.org according to bytes magazine. Intel was badly criticized for its initial response and inevitably recalled all the defective chips. In October of 1994, Dr. Thomas nicely, the professor of Mathematics at Lynchburg College, discovered the Bug. He reached out to Intel but got no response back. Word spread quickly however, and on October 30, a message was posted on internet word which eventually reached the industry’s press. Intel came out publicly saying that it was not serious and would not affect most users. According to Nicely, the person he contacted at Intel admitted later that he was aware of the defect since May of 1994. To satisfy customers, Intel offered to replace the chip to consumers who could prove that they were affected on December 20,1994. Only a small percentage of Pentium owners responded to the recall. This however cost Intel a reported $475 million against earnings. It’s even been said that later in the future, Intel turned them into key rings. If this were to happen today, I think Intel or whatever other company, would handle it a lot better in terms of public relations...
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