Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!newcastle.ac.uk!turing!n03vk
From: Michael.Marsden@newcastle.ac.uk (Michael Marsden)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What's in the '586?
Message-ID: <1991May17.102045.21351@newcastle.ac.uk>
Date: 17 May 91 10:20:45 GMT
References: <1991May14.002130.4740@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> <42347@cup.portal.com>
Sender: news@newcastle.ac.uk
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU
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mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
>    [...]
>A novel method has been developed for reducing the cost of floating-point
>performance to the end user.  Each 586 has 100 bytes of EPROM for
>storing passwords unique to each chip.  When a user decides to upgrade
>to hardware floating point, he simply calls Intel and buys the password
>for enabling the on-chip FPU.  Each password is good for 10 gigaflops,
>i.e. you get 10,000,000,000 floating point operations.  (An 8-bit
>password is sufficient, because three consecutive failed password attempts
>permanently disables the FPU).  When you buy your 100th password, the FPU
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A chip with THIS feature would make a very nice target for malicious
virus code....   :-)

... not to mention the excitement it would lend to life-critical
applications. Just imagine the entire [insert your favorite airline]
fleet crashing simultaneously because they forgot to pay for the
next 10 GFs!


                                 -Mike Mars


PS sigh, and its not even the 1st of April...