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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Engel who wrote (84783)	7/1/1999 9:32:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Respond to of 186894

Intel Investors - Intel Finds - and FIXES - another BUG in the i810 Whitney Chip Set. This one may affect the Year 2000 compliance - but a BIOS fix seems to correct the problem. Note that Dell will be using the i810 in a sub $1000 PC - as predicted some time ago by somebody on this thread. Paul {===========================} zdnet.com Intel issues fix for another 810 chip set glitch By John G. Spooner, PC Week Online July 1, 1999 7:46 PM ET It's not good timing. Intel Corp. confirmed today it has delivered to OEMs a fix for another glitch with its 810 chip set for Celeron-based PCs. The glitch -- or erratum, as Intel calls it -- can cause the chip set's real-time clock to display incorrect date and time, officials said. The real-time clock, which is a part of the chip set, updates the time once per second, but during the update alerts the system that it is doing so. Because of the erratum, a signal that is supposed to be sent from the clock alerting the rest of the system it is busy may not get sent. As a result, incorrect data can be displayed. "If it occurs, it may result in invalid data being read in the date and time display fields of the real-time clock," said Intel spokesman Dan Francisco. "However, the actual values themselves wouldn't change." Some applications get their time information from the real-time clock, which also supplies timing information to a PC's BIOS software. Some delays expected The fix consists of updated BIOS software, which ensures that a system knows the clock is being updated. As a result of the glitch and its resulting fix, which OEMs are in the process of implementing, some 810-based products may be delayed. The reason? OEMs are concerned that the glitch could be picked up by some year 2000 testing tools, which would list an affected PC as non-Y2K compliant, sources said. Intel, however, lists the chip set as a compliant product. For OEMs like Dell Computer Corp., it's better to err on the side of caution than to send customers into year 2000 compliance frenzy. "We are taking some extra due diligence due to this erratum," said Dell spokesman John Thompson. "Regardless of the real or imagined issue with the real-time clock, because of year 2000 ... people are more sensitive to timing issues." The fix may delay Dell's new 810-based Dimension desktop PC, announced June 15 and expected to ship in late July, by a few weeks. Last month, Intel had to address a glitch that could cause a system to hang if a Pentium III processor and the 810 chip set were put together.