Some Xeon chips have bugs

Intel announced that two low-end versions of its new Pentium III Xeon processor for computer server systems contain a bug. The chips involved are the 550MHz Xeon with 512 kilobytes of cache memory and another 55MHz chip with a megabyte of secondary cache. Both chips run in a configuration of eight processors on the Intel

"Sabre" motherboard. "We expect to have the root cause and solution within the next few weeks," said Intel spokesman Chuck

Mulloy.

Intel is continuing to ship the two products, but is advising customers not to use them with the Sabre motherboard. The bug appears when a system is pushed to its highest performance limit, resulting in a total system crash, producing the so-called "blue screen of death," on the user’s monitor. Mulloy also noted that he majority of Pentium III Xeon 550 megahertz chips are sold with 2 megabytes of secondary cache memory and those chips don’t have the bug.