Just found THIS.

Now I'm not a techo, but this doesn't sound very confidence-building, considering I'm about to buy a new Intel iMac.

Can anyone 'in the know' give me their perspective on this? Is it still worth getting a Rev1 machine?

g.

All chips have defects.
Apple and Intel wouldn't debut a chip they thought might screw up majorly... Especially when half the industry is watching Apple's Intel transition.

Don't worry about it. Worst case, the machine has the glitch and Apple have to recall them and replace the procs.

Hi graemie, I too am very eager to get my hands on the Intel iMac 17" model. It would be a major step up from my 0.8GHz iMac G4, despite all the chatter about it being *only* 10-20% faster than the iMac G5, imagine how much faster it is compared to my existing machine. Wow.

As for the CPU issues that Intel has noted while it gives cause for concern, I wonder how many issues exist in the CPUs that we use today? How does it compare?

While I am so very very very keen for a new iMac, I will wait until after 1st April 2006, personally I recommend this to a lot of potential buyers of the Intel chips. Not only is this Apple's offical 30th Birthday, but it will be about 4 months after the release of the Intel iMac, and by then any major problems that users have faced should obvious.

The pentium 4 has a lof of errata that was never fixed.

And if they ever decide to fix them, could be fixed with a microcode update.

A bit off topic, but I would like to know, Is there any processor chip fabs/development in Aus? Or is it all US/Asia?

It's perfectly normal for processors to have errors. Compared to some common procs, 34 is really quite low, expecially for such a complex chip, dualies & all.

For Intel:
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/manufa...turing_qa.htm#1

How many factories do you have worldwide, where are they located and what percentage of your workforce do they employ?

Intel has 11 fabs worldwide today. The company also has six assembly and test sites worldwide. Intel has 15 manufacturing sites worldwide. Sites within the United States are located in Chandler, Ariz.; Santa Clara, Calif.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Hudson, Mass.; Rio Rancho, N.M.; Hillsboro, Ore.; and Dupont, Wash. Sites outside the United States are located in Shanghai, China; San Jose, Costa Rica; Leixlip, Ireland; Jerusalem, Israel; Qiryat Gat, Israel; Kulim, Malaysia; Penang, Malaysia; and Cavite, Philippines. Approximately half of Intel's 78,700 employees work within Intel's Technology Manufacturing Group.

For AMD:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/AboutAM..._52_502,00.html

AMD Austin, AMD in Dresden, AMD Singapore, AMD/Spansion Penang

Intel clearly has the production capacity over AMD, probably why Steve chose Intel instead of AMD, along with the laptop CPU lineup.