Re: Intel microcode fixes [OFF-TOPIC]

doctor@fruitbat.org
Sat, 21 Nov 1998 21:48:57 -0800 (PST)


Simon Kenyon said ...
>
> On 19-Nov-98 doctor@fruitbat.org wrote:
> > Think of how the Intel Floating Point Bug would have been a
> > non-issue if Pentiums were microcode upgradable?
>
> i think that was a bad example to pick
> the floating point bug was (i believe) caused by crosstalk
> no amount of re-microcoding could have fixed that!

Possibly. But that's not to say that changing the microcode couldn't
provide a fix for it (provided that the FP was implemented in microcode
;-) Anyway, the point is that this idea of programmable CPUs is nothing
new. It's just taken this long for the technology to trickle down to the
microprocessor implementation.

> simon

-- 
Peter A. Castro (doctor@fruitbat.org) or (pcastro@us.oracle.com)

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