got this from comp.sys.intel, look there for more info (see also my previous
post). The text below is not mine (see references and from lines)
-----------------
From: antonio at qualcomm.com (Franklin Antonio)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel
Subject: Intel's official policy statement (was Re: Access to Intel
re:Pentium(tm) Processor FP Flaw Concerns)
Date: 25 Nov 1994 02:27:54 GMT
Organization: Qualcomm Inc.
Lines: 48
Message-ID: <3b3i3a$3bd at qualcomm.com>
References: <3b2flp$lvh at newsbf01.news.aol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: qualcom-e.qualcomm.com
In article <3b2flp$lvh at newsbf01.news.aol.com>, KMKE <kmke at aol.com> wrote:
>Intel's Application Support Organization is available to you to directly
Thank you for posting this information Ken. I appreciate the fact that
you advised us of the availability of this official position statement
directly.
>printed response to the Pentium(tm) Processor Floating Point Flaw is
>... document 9788 at 800-525-3019
I obtained this document per the above instructions, and OCR'd it to
text. I am posting it here as a service to the comp.sys.intel community,
and to save Intel a few bucks on their phone bill. I think this is easier
than having each of us individually call the number and get the fax.
The following is the full text of document #9788 from Intel...
Intel Pentium(TM) Processor: Floating Point Unit Information
INTEL INFORMATION ON THE SUBTLE FLAW OF THE FLOATING POINT UNIT OF THE
PENTIUM(TM) PROCESSOR
There has been a lot of communication recently on the Internet about a
floating point flaw on the Pentium(TM) processor. For almost all users,
this is not a problem. Here are the facts. Intel detected a subtle
flaw in the precision of the divide operation for the Pentium Processor.
For rare cases (one in nine billion possible divides), the precision of
the result is reduced. Intel discovered this subtle flaw during ongoing
testing -- after several trillions of floating point operations in our
continuing testing of the Pentium processor. Intel immediately tested
the most stringent technical applications that use the floating point
unit over the course of months and we have been unable to detect any
error. In fact, after extensive testing and shipping millions of
Pentium processor-based systems, there has only been one reported
instance of this flaw affecting a user, to our knowledge. In this case,
a mathematician doing theoretical analysis of prime numbers and
reciprocals saw reduced precision at the 9th place to the right of the
decimal. In fact, extensive engineering tests demonstrated that an
average spreadsheet user could encounter this subtle flaw of reduced
precision once in every 27,000 years of use. Based on these empirical
observations and our extensive testing, the user of standard
off-the-shelf software will not be impacted. If you do this kind of
prime numbers generation or other complex mathematics, call
1-800-628-8686 (International 916-356-3551). If you don-t, you wont
encounter any problems with your Pentium processor-based system. if
ever in the life of the computer this becomes a problem, Intel will work
with the customer to resolve the issue.
22 November 1994 Intel FaxBack # 9788 Page 1
