*BSD News Article 39646


Return to BSD News archive

Xref: sserve comp.sys.powerpc:29804 comp.sys.intel:25064 comp.os.misc:3519 comp.unix.bsd:15620 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:7789 comp.unix.sys5.r4:8847 comp.unix.misc:15111 comp.os.linux.development:21367 comp.os.linux.misc:31855 comp.os.linux.misc:31856 comp.os.386bsd.development:2836 comp.os.386bsd.misc:4452
Newsgroups: comp.sys.powerpc,comp.sys.intel,comp.os.misc,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.misc,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.misc
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.indirect.com!wes
From: wes@indirect.com (Barnacle Wes)
Subject: Re: Interested in PowerPC for Linux / FreeBSD / NetBSD?
Message-ID: <D0x1u1.Av9@indirect.com>
Sender: usenet@indirect.com (System Operator)
Organization: the Briney (notso) Deep
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1994 18:25:13 GMT
References: <3cilp3$143@news-2.csn.net> <3clp1c$q6p@news.iastate.edu> <3cphs0$l6e@ddi2.digital.net> <D0v8yu.LLx@indirect.com> <3cq6o4$pd9@bigboote.WPI.EDU>
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2.1 [BP] PL2.1]
Followup-To: comp.sys.powerpc,comp.sys.intel,comp.os.misc,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.misc,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.misc
Lines: 43

In article <D0v8yu.LLx@indirect.com>, I wrote:
> I don't see how Intel could deserve such a "raw deal" more.  Every
> chip line they've produced in recent history has been dumped onto
> the market with known bugs, simply because they were sure the
> average DOS user wouldn't notice it.

Joseph W. Vigneau (joev@mikasa.WPI.EDU) wrote:
: So, if the average DOS user never becomes a victim of the bug, what harm is
: done?

What about the people who use those Pentiums for applications that
need that accuracy?  They *also* weren't informed of this problem.
What about the financial applications run on Sequent multi-processor
systems?  What about NASA scientists working on their workstations?
What about engineers? Do these people not buy Pentiums?  Let us
hope...

: Look at Intel's current market. How many of them do
: the hard core floating point stuff?  A very small percentage... I haven't
: noticed any flaws in my POVray raytrace output yet :)

And what if one of those small percentage of users causes your bank
balance to be off?  Or drops a satellite into New York City?  Well,
OK, that wouldn't be much of a loss...

The galling part is not that they make mistakes, everyone does,
but that they hide it for so long, and then just brush it off when
confronted.  It would seem they've been taking lessons from GM and
FoMoCo.

: Besides, this one was just widely publicized.  Granted, Intel shouldn't have
: kept it quiet for all this time, and they'll be bitten for it.. However,
: it's not like PowerPCs, MIPS, Sparcs, and Alphas are bug free, too.....

Facts?   Figures?  Errata sheets?  Yah, the 603 had some flaws,
but Moto owned up to it, agreed to fix the problem, and went back
to silicon ASAP.  What Alpha bugs?  What Sparc bugs?  The R4000
and R4400 have seemed pretty solid so far, too.  Oh, excuse me,
this posting was just mindless Intel apologism, wasn't it.  You
don't need to substantiate anything, just state that Intel is no
worse than anyone else.

	Wes Peters