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Intel’s quick response to a chip flaw illustrates how much is at stake in the rollout of a new CPU.

Codenamed “Cougar Point,” the flawed chip is part of the chipset supporting Intel’s second generation Core series of processors, codenamed “Sandy Bridge,” which were released in early January. Intel announced yesterday that it had discovered a design flaw in the chip and immediately halted shipments of the affected products.

“The chip passed all of our normal quality assurance and customer-QA programs,” said Chuck Mulloy, corporate communications director for Intel. But after Intel received returns from “a handful” of customers about 10 days ago, the company began retesting the chips with intensified stress, simulating the impact of use at high levels over a three-year period.

“The root cause was discovered after the additional stress testing,” Mulloy told Wired.com, “and once we discovered that, the fix was apparent.”

Affected products containing the Cougar Point chips have been shipping since Jan 9, and Intel has shipped an estimated 8 million chips needing replacement. Approximately 500,000 finished systems contain Cougar Point chips, Mulloy said.

Intel manufacturing plants are currently in the process of correcting the design flaw in affected Cougar Point chips, which requires a new mask spin on an outer layer of metal on each chip. Since the fix is applied to an outer layer of metal rather than one more interior to the chip, Mulloy says correcting the flaw is much less difficult.

Intel expects first fixed products to be out of the factory by the end of February, and to be back to full production volume by April.

Intel’s quick handling of the situation most likely comes from a willingness to avoid a repeat of an earlier chip-recall nightmare. The company suffered a massive PR hit in 1994 after the discovery of the Pentium FDIV Bug, which the company initially dismissed as a relatively rare problem found in extremely rare cases (calculations pointed to a 1 in 9 billion chance of error, according to Intel).

But the nonchalance of Intel’s response combined with multiple news outlets picking up the story created a public outcry, forcing the company to offer replacements for the flawed chips. It cost the company a reported $475 million in pretax earnings.

Even with a quick-fix response, Intel will pay a high price for the Cougar Point recall. The company estimates a $1 billion net loss for the first quarter of 2011 after calculating for lost revenues and expenses associated with repair and replacement.

The fallout is spreading to other hardware manufacturers, too. Samsung is currently offering refunds for all of its computers equipped with the Sandy Bridge chipset, according to Bloomberg. NEC may push back the release dates of four new planned PC models as well.

Hardware manufacturers Acer and Lenovo have both promoted hardware to come in 2011 that utilizes the Sandy Bridge chipset. But Acer’s plans for a new line of Sandy Bridge–powered tablets haven’t been affected, Acer spokesperson Kelly Odle told Wired.com. Lenovo’s most-recent generation of IdeaPad laptops and IdeaCentre desktop PCs — both of which contain the Sandy Bridge chipset — may be affected by Intel’s design flaw, Lenovo spokesperson Ray Gorman told Wired.com in a statement.

The problem originated as a design error in the chip’s serial-ATA (or SATA) port.

“On day one or two of using a device with the chip, you won’t see a problem,” Intel’s Mulloy said. “But two or three years out, we’re seeing degradation in the circuit on ports 2 through 5. We’re seeing a failure rate in approximately 5 to 20 percent of chips over a two- or three-year period, which is unacceptable for us.”

Photo: Intel’s Sandy Bridge Chipset/Courtesy Intel

See Also:

• Intel Moves to Squish Pentium Bug
• Tablets, Dual-Core Phones and 3-D Cameras: 2011’s Hottest Gadget Trends
• Acer to Phase Out Netbooks in Favor of Tablets
• Podcast Predictions: Tablets, High-Powered Processors and 3-D to Dominate CES
• Intel Beefs Up CPUs With Graphics Power — and Content Protection
• Intel Touts ‘WiDi’ for Connecting PCs, TVs

If Google and Microsoft can get in on the home energy management wave then hey, why not Intel? Chipzilla is teaming up with Capgemini SA to create a “tablet-style computer” that lets humans control the power consumed by their appliances. Later, presumably when there are enough of these smart devices on the grid, it could allow utilities to more intelligently manage its electricity allocation. According to Intel’s Joe Jensen, general manager for low-power embedded processors, “energy is a big part of our project to extend the fringe of computing out to the next thing.” Indeed, under Paul Otellini’s lead, Intel is targeting fuel pumps at the corner gas station, advertising signs, and even exercise equipment as it seeks opportunities beyond traditional computing devices — a market Intel believes to be worth about $10 billion. The goal of the Intel / Capgemini initiative is to offer a full-service smart-grid solution, according to Steven Harris, head of smart home services at Capgemini. Mind you, Intel’s involvement shouldn’t come as a total surprise here, seeing as how it was showing off wall panels for real-time utility management in the — groan — “digital crib” way back at CES in 2010. That’s one such device, pictured above.

Update: Corrected spelling from “Cap Gemini” (as Businessweek presented it) to “Capgemini” — this isn’t 2004 anymore. We also managed to unearth the official press release announcing Intel’s Home Energy Dashboard reference design built around the Atom processor. You’ll find that after the break.

Continue reading Intel and Capgemini to develop tablet for home energy management

Intel and Capgemini to develop tablet for home energy management originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Notbook (n.) — An affordable ultraportable laptop, typically with a 11.6-inch or 12-inch display that is not a netbook. It packs more power than a netbook (i.e. can handle 1080p video and Flash at fullscreen) and provides a more comfortable computing experience than the typical, 10-inch underpowered, shrunken Atom-based laptop. Most do not have optical drives, but do last for over five hours on a charge. Unlike pricey ultraportable laptops, notbooks are more affordable and start at around $400.

About six months ago, the 11.6-inch Dell Inspiron M101z arrived on my doorstep for review. The AMD Neo-powered system looked like a slightly enlarged netbook, but in a briefing with Dell, the product manager reinforced quite a few times that the system was absolutely “not a netbook.” I can’t remember his exact wording, but he made it crystal clear — the $449 Inspiron M101z was so much more powerful than an Intel Atom netbook that it could be one’s primary machine. Obviously, I started calling these sorts of laptops “notbooks,” and over the next few months, more and more of them started popping up. Some of them paired Atom with an NVIDIA Ion GPU (e.g. Eee PC 1215N), while others used AMD’s Neo chip and more recently AMD’s new Fusion Zacate APU. (Intel’s Core ULV-powered systems are frankly too expensive to be considered in this category, though some Pentium / Core 2 Duo systems, like the Acer Timeline X1810T, could qualify.)

Uh, so what? There’s a new crop of more powerful, affordable, and highly mobile laptops — what’s the big deal? Well, while many think tablets are what will ultimately cut the netbook market down to size, it’s the notbooks that will also seriously hit the Atom-based lilliputian laptops of today where it really hurts. Don’t get me wrong, ARM-powered tablets like the iPad and Motorola Xoom are going to impact netbook sales in a big way, too (heck, they already have!), but mark my words, notbooks or affordable ultraportables will take a noticeable chunk of both the netbook and the mainstream laptop market. There’s finally a class of laptops that provide a terrific balance between primary and mobile computing without breaking the bank. Think I’m crazy? Hit the break to understand what I’m talking about.

Continue reading Editorial: The rise of the notbook, the fall of the netbook

Editorial: The rise of the notbook, the fall of the netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A problem requiring a “silicon fix” is bad news in the chipset business, and sadly that’s what Intel is announcing. Its new Intel 6 Series chipset, Cougar Point, has been found to have a flaw, something to do with the SATA controller. Intel is indicating that the ports can “degrade over time,” leading to poor i/o performance down the road. All shipments have been stopped and a fix has been implemented for new deliveries, but it sounds like recalls will be starting soon for those with this ticking time bomb silicon within. It isn’t a critical problem right now, though, so if you own a Sandy Bridge Core i5 or Core i7 system keep computing with confidence while looking for a recall notice, but it is bad news for Intel’s bottom line: the company is advising a $300 million hit to revenue.

Update: Jimmy sent us a chat log with an Intel customer service representative indicating that this recall only affects “some desktop boards based on Intel P67 chipset,” that the H67 chipset boards appear to not be affected, but that the company doesn’t have a comprehensive list yet. We’ve certainly seen cases where CSRs don’t have all the info in this sort of situation, but still we’d advise waiting a bit before tearing your new mobo out and bringing it back to the store.

[Thanks, Matt]

Continue reading Intel finds Sandy Bridge chipset design flaw, shipments stopped and recalls beginning

Intel finds Sandy Bridge chipset design flaw, shipments stopped and recalls beginning originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long time since we used a laptop that had a monochromatic display — it was a giant white block of a thing that is not missed — but flip around just about every laptop we use today and you find a backside that stubbornly refuses to change color no matter the light that hits it. Is that a problem? Not really, we think it’s quite fine since we’re not often staring at that bit, but for Toshiba such tedium simply won’t do, so it’s introducing the Dynabook Qosmio T750 with a color-shifting lid. Turn it in the light and it shifts and shimmers, just like the chameleon paint tuners have been using on custom rides for decades. Here, though, we’re told it’s done with multiple layers of film, no paint at all. Oh, the inside? A 2.66GHz Intel Core i5-480M, 4GB of DDR 3 memory, and a 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768 display that’s LED backlit — which is also capable of displaying multiple colors, in case you’re interested.

Toshiba Dynabook Qosmio T750 laptop has a lid that changes color on both sides originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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