When you’re the brains behind 80 percent of the world’s computers, everything you do is big news. Unfortuantely for Intel, that means the good things and the bad things. Intel has been billing its Sandy Bridge processor and Cougar Point chipsets as drastic leaps forward in computing technology thanks to a unique combination of power and speed. I imagine they would be just that, if they worked. Intel has discovered a serious flaw in its Sandy Bridge processor and the company has pulled them from the market days after introducing them.
This is a crucial time for the computer processor industry. Given the slow decline in desktop sales and the steep rise in mobile devices, Intel doesn’t need egg on its face as it tries to improve its core business while expanding into new markets. The flaw in the chips appears to be trouble when the processors are exposed to high heat and high voltage loads and is considered to be the cause of a low and steady failure rate across the lifetime of a computer, with 5 percent of Sandy Bridge computers failing after 3 years.
Fortunately for Intel, the Cougar Point chipsets appear to be working perfectly. Intel has pulled 100,000 of the Sandy Bridge processors (or the equivalent of one Chinese supercomputer) off the market and are working on an improved version. Fortunately for Intel and consumers, most of the Sandy Bridge processors never reached consumers (thought they were in the early stages of making it to market).
Tags: Intel, Intel Sandy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Intel pulls Sandy Bridge processors from the market just after launch, Sandy Bridge processor problems, flaws in Intel processors, Cougar Point chipsets, Sandy Bridge processors pulled due to flaws, production flaws
