Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!ucsd!ames!uhccux!munnari.oz.au!uqcspe!hitech!clyde
From: clyde@hitech.ht.oz (Clyde Smith-Stubbs)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Claimed bug in 80286
Message-ID: <310@hitech.ht.oz>
Date: 14 Aug 89 05:33:54 GMT
References: <1989Aug13.023601.594@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: HI-TECH Software, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Lines: 20

From article <1989Aug13.023601.594@utzoo.uucp>, by henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer):
> In article <7467@ecsvax.UUCP> urjlew@ecsvax.UUCP (Rostyk Lewyckyj) writes:
> 	[Other stuff deleted]
>>3. How paranoid does a software developer need to be in writing
>>his programs? Is it necessary to get the bug lists for all previous
>>versions of the processor being programmed and write code that
>>avoids the union of all the bugs? ...

Apart from anything else programming around the union of all previous
bugs may be impossible since it is not uncommon for bugs in different
releases of a chip to be mutually incompatible, e.g. the workaround for
a bug in version ABC.123 may fall foul of a different bug in version
ABF.456. In this situation the best approach is usually to steer totally
clear of all areas suspected of being buggy. Mind you this gets hard when
some of the bugs are in areas which are totally indispensable.
-- 
Clyde Smith-Stubbs
HI-TECH Software, P.O. Box 103, ALDERLEY, QLD, 4051, AUSTRALIA.
INTERNET:	clyde@hitech.ht.oz.au		PHONE:	+61 7 300 5011
UUCP:		uunet!hitech.ht.oz.au!clyde	FAX:	+61 7 300 5246