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

To: James A. Shankland who wrote (39921)	11/11/1997 1:33:00 AM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 186894

James - Re: "You are missing a rather important point." You are missing a rather important point. Before Friday, Nov. 7, 1997 NOBODY (save one person) knew about this obscure flaw, nobody reported the flaw and nobody ever reported a problem with a Pentium related to that flaw. Tens of millions of Pentiums are out in the field and billions and billions of operating hours have been logged on the same Pentium machines without a problem. And now an illegal, meaningless, obscure code sequence has been unearthed that, when run on a Pentium, will produce a result similar to unplugging the computer. On November 6, 1997 all Pentiums were perfectly good. And you now think that on Novemmer 10 all Pentiums are trash? Better go check yout 5 MPH bumpers and be sure that they work properly. Paul

To: James A. Shankland who wrote (39921)	11/11/1997 8:01:00 AM
From: Fred Fahmy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

James, <You are missing a rather important point.> My point is that there are plenty of ways to crash a network if someone is going to devote their efforts to this end. Hackers, viruses, etc. are a way of life in a multi-user environment. The current flaw just provides one more tool. I think the good news is that each time a new bug/flaw gets revealed the PR impact seems less and less. I think the public is beginning to understand that CPU's are very complex components and that they all have bugs, documented and undocumented. The fact that this flaw has existed since Pentiums were first introduced and just now discovered tells me a lot about its relevance. This isn't the first CPU bug/flaw and it won't be the last. A solution will be determined and implemented and life will go on. I undertand the desire for sensationalism, but in the bigger scheme of things this flaw is largely irrelevant and will soon be but another memory. Many Intel bashers would like to think differently but wishful thinking won't change reality. BTW, I guess to some this will be enough of a reason to ugprades to PII <GGGGG>. FF