Xref: utzoo comp.arch:12357 comp.sys.intel:1021 comp.sys.ibm.pc:38010 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!littlei!nosun!joel From: joel@nosun.UUCP (Joel Clark) Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.sys.intel,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Compaq find problem with chip Message-ID: <403@intelisc.nosun.UUCP> Date: 3 Nov 89 23:24:43 GMT References: <2719@ganymede.inmos.co.uk> <2725@ganymede.inmos.co.uk> <2591@munnari.oz.au> <443@ssp1.idca.tds.philips.nl> Reply-To: joel@intelisc.UUCP (Joel Clark) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Portland, Or. Lines: 58 In article <443@ssp1.idca.tds.philips.nl> dolf@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Dolf Grunbauer) writes: >>In article <2725@ganymede.inmos.co.uk>, des@yatton.inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd) writes: >> Brief summary: Compaq announced that it had found problem with fpu on >> an Intel chip it is using in its new generation PCs. > >What is the actual problem ? What chips 80486 and/or 80487 ? >Could someone give more details or did they only say there is a problem >and not what the precise problem is ? >-- >Dolf Grunbauer Tel: +31 55 433233 Internet dolf@idca.tds.philips.nl >Philips Telecommunication and Data Systems UUCP ....!mcvax!philapd!dolf >Dept. SSP, P.O. Box 245, 7300 AE Apeldoorn, The Netherlands > --> Holland is only 1/6 of the Netherlands <-- From DATAQUEST information services. 80846 CHIP FIX At its quarterly financial analyst meeting held on October 26, Intel announced that it was officially releasing availability information on its 80486 32-bit microprocessor, on which an error resulting from a floating point operation had been discovered. Dave House, general manager of the microcomponents group essentially described the problem as "obscure". The error affects floating point tangent and exception handling and arises when the floating point instruction is handling exact powers of 2 and when the instruction is followed by a particular sequence of instructions. Readers may recall that in its implementation of the 80486, Intel had incorporated the floating point unit on-chip. Discovery of the error result was made after 100,000 hours of testing performed by Intel and some of its major customers who had received early shipment of the device. Once Intel had verified the problem at the chip level, the company proceeded to notify customers on Friday, October 20th. Intel is in the process of implementing a fix on the mask set and expects to have evaluation product from the revised masks next week. In the meantime, shipments of the 80486 are on-hold. Many wafers in production had not yet reached the final metalization stage, and so are being held prior to metalization pending the new masks. Production will resume in November and the company still expects to ship tens of thousands of the 80486 during the fourth quarter. Intel policy with respect to the flawed devices is to offer its customers replacements. Intel will continue to supply the defective 80486 to customers wishing to go ahead and use the device. Many business applications will not be affected by the floating point error. The floating point tangent operation is a new instruction not featured on the original 8087 math-coprocessor. Moreover, some workarounds have been developed to handle the resulting floating point error which may arise in scientific and technical applications. Resolution of this problem will not impact Intel as severely as the problem the company had with the 80386, largely because the problem was discovered at an early stage. In the case of the math errors occurring on the 80386 were discovered over a year after shipments had commenced. Shipments of the 80486 had only begun early in the third quarter, and most customers have not yet released their products based on the chip. Therefore, the number of devices affected is smaller and substitution will be simplified by the relatively low extent of distribution. Intel stated that this problem would not affect anticipated fourth quarter financials, which had previously been characterized as providing modest revenue growth. joel clark intel scientific computers joel@intelisc.intel.com (503) 629-7732