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Flaw Appears in Itanium 2

Intel acknowledged a flaw this week in its Itanium 2 processors that have been shipping since July. The problem could cause systems to crash.

An Intel spokesperson said the flaw, which occurs only under a very specific set of circumstances, was found by a computer manufacturer earlier this year in a lab setting. No known cases of the flaw affecting a customer environment had been reported, according to Intel.

The small universe of Itanium 2 users who find that the circumstances triggering the flaw apply to their environments can run a software fix from Intel. The fix slows the chip's speed by about 100 MHz from the shipping clockspeeds of 900 MHz and 1 GHz.

Due to the flaw, IBM reportedly stopped shipment of its new IBM eServer xSeries 450, which uses the Itanium 2 processors.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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