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Hoping the Meltdown and Spectre security problems might mean Intel would be buying you a shiny new computer after a chip recall? Sorry, ain't gonna happen.
Intel famously paid hundreds of millions of dollars to recall its Pentium processors after the 1994 discovery of the "FDIV bug" that revealed rare but real calculation errors. Meltdown and Spectre are proving similarly damaging to Intel's brand, sending the company's stock down more than 5 percent.
[...] But Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said the new problems are much more easily fixed -- and indeed are already well on their way to being fixed, at least in the case of Intel-powered PCs and servers. Intel said Thursday that 90 percent of computers released in the last 5 years will have fixes available by the end of next week. "This is very very different from FDIV," Krzanich said, criticizing media coverage of Meltdown and Spectre as overblown. "This is not an issue that is not fixable... we're seeing now the first iterations of patches."
Source: Nope, no Intel chip recall after Spectre and Meltdown, CEO says
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @11:34AM (8 children)
What about Krzanich selling stock like crazy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @11:50AM (6 children)
Performance drop is situational, very dependent on workload. I don't know where you got the 50% figure from, but from what I heard, normal-person usage will see a fall in performance of a few percent, while some specific applications (mostly database and virtualization) could be hit by up to 30%, IIRC.
The stock selling was not under control of the CEO, it's all automated and preplanned, and not unusual.
(Your information sources seem to suck, I'd suggest finding some new ones.)
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Saturday January 06 2018, @11:53AM (3 children)
It was "preplanned" after he learned of the bugs.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/01/intel-ceos-sale-of-stock-just-before-security-bug-reveal-raises-questions/ [arstechnica.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @12:06PM
What made him wait 5 months, before coming to that decision?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by choose another one on Saturday January 06 2018, @12:13PM (1 child)
_most_ of it was options which he exercised as soon as they vested and sold as soon as possible after that. Those options would have been set up long (years) before the bug was known, the dates on which they vested and could be sold were set then and were not in his control.
The fact that he also offloaded other shares leaving him holding the minimum required by his contract is very very likely because he is going, and wants the money for whatever he is doing next. That is also likely to have been planned months if not years ago. It is very very common for senior people to leave when options vest or earn-out contracts complete, Jimmy Iovine (head of Apple music) is in the news today because he is doing exactly that, and it's a several-month plan, as these things usually are. I would be not be surprised at all if we hear soon that Krzanich is moving to pastures new, and it will inevitably look like it is a response to the bugs, however I would also be surprised if it was not actually planned months/years ago.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday January 06 2018, @02:59PM
Well, that was a glib and bloodless dodge of the fact that upper management in the US is hugely overpaid, and that if anyone has insider knowledge, it is them.
However, it is correct to say that their pay has little to do with performance or problems such as these processor bugs. No matter the circumstances of their departure, they get a golden parachute.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @02:22PM
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/whats-behind-the-intel-design-flaw-forcing-numerous-patches/ [arstechnica.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday January 06 2018, @03:45PM
it's all automated and preplanned, and not unusual.
Heh, so was the bug... I kid! I kid! But they could have sat on it for a very long time. These days it does pay to assume the worst.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by legont on Saturday January 06 2018, @06:42PM
He will put up a fight, but it'd much easier for everybody to simply bankrupt and perhaps divide Intel. He knows it and everybody knows it.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.