Intel fixes Pentium bug

Intel Corporation has released a software patch for the "F0" bug that affects Pentium and Pentium MMX microprocessors. After confirming theexistence of the bug earlier this week, Intel talked to operating systemvendors such as Microsoft and IBM and explained how to fix the bug in software.

Intel released the following statement about the bug on Friday.

"The ['F0' bug] affects the Pentium processor, Pentium processor with MMXtechnology, Pentium OverDrive Processor and Pentium OverDrive processors with MMX technology.

"It does not affect the Pentium Pro processor, Pentium II processor and i486 and earlier processors.

"This invalid instruction is not in commercial software.

"The erratum only occurs when the processor receives a specific invalid instruction. The result of this erratum is the system may 'freeze' and would have to be turned off and rebooted to return to normal operation.

"It is important to note that this erratum will only occur when someone has intentionally created this invalid instruction because they want to freeze the system.

"We have identified a workaround that prevents the system from being 'frozen' by this invalid instruction and allows it to continue normal operation. The workaround modifies the execution flow to avoid the systemhang after the invalid instruction is received. The workaround can be implemented through the operating system software."

Microsoft and IBM pledged to implement the bug fix in their operatingsystems