That said, the infamous didn't write off the Pentium line of processors. Most of us accepted that it was just a slip up with an early version of the chip, and that Intel had moved on. From the few comments I've read so far related to this story, it seems that most people are being charitable this time around, too.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if the kind of people who buy computers that simply can't fail, such as those needed for server farms, have decided to skip the Sandy Bridge line and are taking a good look at AMD's catalog.

Keir Thomas has been writing about computing since the last century, and more recently has written several best-selling books. You can learn more about him at and his Twitter feed is .