Question

Flawed Pentium computer chip.In October 1994, a flawwas discovered in the Pentium microchip installed in personalcomputers. The chip produced an incorrect result when dividing two numbers. Intel, the manufacturer of the Pentium chip, initially announced that such an error wouldoccur once in 9 billion divisions, or “once in every 27,000 years” for a typical user; consequently, it did not immediately offer to replace the chip.

Depending on the procedure, statistical software packages (e.g., Minitab) may perform an extremely large number of divisions to produce the required output. For heavy users of the software, 1 billion divisions over a short time frame is not unusual. Will the flawed chip be a problem for a heavy Minitab user? [Note:Two months after the flaw was discovered, Intel agreed to replace all Pentium chips free of charge.]

Short answer

The probability is 0.111 and it is fairly common

Step-by-step solution

Important formula

The formula for probability is$\mathbf{P}\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{favourableoutcomes}}{\mathbf{totaloutcomes}}$

Find that will the flawed chip be a problem for a heavy Minitab user.

Intel Corporationcommitted to replacing al Pentium chips free of charge two months after the error was detected. Then

$\begin{array}{rcl}P\left(U\right)& =& \frac{1}{9}\\ & =& 0.111\\ & & \end{array}$

Therefore, the probability is 0.111 and it is fairly common.