12/05/2022 at 00:01 by Henner Schröder – From the Pentium bug and AMD’s Brisbane – that happened on December 5th. Every day, PC Games Hardware takes a look back at the young but eventful history of the computer.
…1969: The world is slowly but surely becoming connected: On December 5, 1969, the fourth Arpanet node (“IMP”) is set up at the University of Utah. A DEC PDP-10 thus becomes the fourth computer in this first computer network, the forerunner of today’s Internet, which in March of the following year also spread to the east coast of the USA and finally to other countries in 1973.
…1994: It was already discovered in October – but it was not until December 5, 1994 that Intel addressed the public in a press release: With the words “a flaw was discovered in the floating point unit (FPU) of the Pentium processor ” the manufacturer admits to the so-called Pentium bug. The text downplays the importance of the bug – which rarely occurs on everyday desktop systems – but Intel decides to recall all Pentium models just two weeks later.
…2006: AMD presents the first Athlon processors with 65-nanometer structures, but they are actually only available at the beginning of 2007. Based on the core named Brisbane, the models Athlon 64 X2 4000+, 4400+ and 4800+ appear first, more will be added later. The later Athlon processors with new names such as the X2 BE-2300 or the X2 4050e are also based on it. Although the 65 nm production should enable higher clock rates and according to AMD the yield is very good right from the start, the Brisbane is only brought to over 3 gigahertz late, the 65 nm model 6000+ appears in mid-2008 – long after the 6000 + and the 6400+ based on the old 90 nm.
