Xref: utzoo comp.sys.intel:1444 comp.arch:18860 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!amdcad!mozart.amd.com!positron!brian From: brian@positron.amd.com (Brian McMinn) Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel,comp.arch Subject: Re: Intel bugs / bugged by Intel :-( Message-ID: <1990Oct30.210042.14836@mozart.amd.com> Date: 30 Oct 90 21:00:42 GMT References: Sender: usenet@mozart.amd.com (Usenet News) Reply-To: brian@positron.AMD.COM (Brian McMinn) Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Austin, Texas Lines: 40 (Jeff Prothero) writes: | Is this SOP in the industry? Do Motorola, AMD, NS ... follow the | same policy? These are my observations from the inside of AMD, not official company policy. I was the "keeper of the bug list" for the Am29000 a couple of years ago. The list contained both a detailed internal description (digestible only by those with intimate knowledge of the part and a full set of logic schematics) and a functional description (all known ways to observe the bug) as well as any known workarounds. The detailed description was strictly internal, but the remainder of the of the list was sent to our marketing group (for distribution to customers) on a regular basis. To my knowledge, our bug list was and still is freely available. There was (and probably still is) some deliberate delay in releasing new bug reports. These delays were for engineering reasons, not marketing reasons. We did not tell the world of a new bug until we had replicated the bug ourselves, understood its cause, looked for as-yet-unreported ways it might manifest itself, and looked diligently for a workaround. Intel's position is different (and somewhat understandable, even if it is deplorable :-) in light of the fact that their chips are second sourced. If Intel made their bug list public, then AMD would have free access to it. One of the not-so-obvious advantages that Intel gains by not making their bug list public is that they can implement fixes to the undisclosed bugs and then reveal both the bug list and the "new and improved" chip at the same time. This prevents AMD from beating them to the draw with a fix. Again, these are my opinions. Brian McMinn brian.mcminn@amd.com Advanced Micro Devices N5PSS Austin, Texas 1-(512)-462-5389 "You can't leap a chasm in two jumps."