Mr. Dobbs spoke of Intel's "bunker mentality" as what had led up to today's
problems.  Described the events leading up to the present, reported today's
about-face, all backed up with stock film footage of an integrated circuit
fabrication facility.  Then introduced Mr. Grove.

Grove's presentation was polished and practiced.  He did not let himself get
irritated at the worse-than-usual leakage from the echo cancellation circuitry
in the satellite link between the East Coast and the studio in Palo Alto.  
(There was a disturbing echo during the first few minutes of the interview.)

Intel's decision to drop the "do you deserve a replacement" policy and give
replacements to all who ask was, he says, based on the unexpected "emotional"
(a word he used half a dozen times) reaction in the customers.  You can't
reason with them, he explained, and the only choice when they get
emotional is to replace their chips no questions asked.

To what does he credit his change of heart?  IBM, Mr. Dobbs asked twice?  No,
not really, said Mr. Grove.  "We monitor online services" he said, and "we
track the calls" to the Intel Pentium 800 number.  He said it had seemed for a
while that the intensity of the public reaction was diminishing, but that just
last week it had risen again.

So "online services" played a part in the Intel about-face.  I expect
comp.sys.intel was one of the online services he was talking about, even
though Mr. Grove did not utter the word "Internet".

Mr. Grove was exceptionally well prepped to avoid saying anything that would,
from Intel's point of view, have been a blunder.  He did not, for example, say
that Intel now thinks the defect is more serious than it previously said.  He
did not, for example, acknowledge the defect to be of legitimate concern to
users generally.  He did not let slip the fraction of Pentiums rolling off
today's production lines that still have the defect, did not reveal how many
chips it has so far promised to replace, did not let himself get pinned down
on when Intel would finally stop making chips with the FDIV defect.

Mr. Grove closed with comments on how everyone, not just Intel, would have to
learn from recent events so as to appreciate how things are different now, how
consumers are a more potent force now than they were in the past.

Carl Oppedahl
Oppedahl & Larson, patent law firm
opped...@patents.com
watch this space for a web server with frequently asked patent questions and answers

--

     Michael Schmidt     mschm...@koblenz.fh-rpl.de

So Mr Andy Grove (Intel) accused consumers being "emotional" (irrational ?),
and can't "reason with them" (unreasonable ?). What an insult !
I was thinking this morning that Intel finally live up to its prior good
corporate citizen image. Now I continue to have my doubt.

| To what does he credit his change of heart?  IBM, Mr. Dobbs asked twice?  No,
| not really, said Mr. Grove.  "We monitor online services" he said, and "we
| track the calls" to the Intel Pentium 800 number.  He said it had seemed for a
| while that the intensity of the public reaction was diminishing, but that just
| last week it had risen again.
|
| So "online services" played a part in the Intel about-face.  I expect
| comp.sys.intel was one of the online services he was talking about, even
| though Mr. Grove did not utter the word "Internet".
|
| Mr. Grove was exceptionally well prepped to avoid saying anything that would,
| from Intel's point of view, have been a blunder.  He did not, for example, say
| that Intel now thinks the defect is more serious than it previously said.  He
| did not, for example, acknowledge the defect to be of legitimate concern to
| users generally.

So Intel still cling to their flawed analysis, and blamed it all on the
unjustified consumer outcry.
--
Patrick Pang   --   pyp...@netcom.com   --   San Jose, CA

He's calling a frog ugly.  The frog, of course, disagrees.  :-)

Best wishes,
George