AMD this week alerted several hundred customers that certain single-core Opteron processors may be susceptible to inconsistent results.
AMD said the affected chips included single-core Opteron x52 (2.6 GHz) and x54 (2.8 GHz) chips, which were produced in late 2005 and early 2006.
Also, AMD said the inconsistency only showed in floating point-intensive code sequences in a test environment, not during the running of commercial applications.
Two other necessary conditions to replicate the problem are elevated CPU temperatures and elevated ambient temperatures.
AMD spokesman John Taylor disputed press reports that said the Opteron’s were flawed, noting the problem only presented itself in a test environment under extreme conditions.
“The problem has not been observed in a production environment or with commercial applications,” Taylor told internetnews.com.
“The total number of customers involved is in the low hundreds and we expect to make some replacements. After we explained the issue, some customers have told us it is not a concern, but we’re going to go the extra mile for any of those who want a replacement.”
AMD is working with its OEM and computer manufacturing customers to identify the parts in question and is offering them free replacement Opterons.
The news comes amid a restructuring at Intel, whose CEO Paul Otellini said at an analyst meeting that the top chipmaker plans $1 billion in spending cuts and restructuring.