Is Intel going to change its "Intel Inside" stickers to read "Fixed Intel Inside?" (If AMD wants to use that joke, they'll have to get in touch with my agent.)

None of this is new or even surprising. Chip manufacturers love to recycle silicon that's not 100 percent effective. The slower chips in a CPU product range are in all likelihood fast chips that failed testing at higher speeds. This is perfectly acceptable, because the chips are sold as slower chips and function correctly for years.

And provided the , the 6-Series chipsets will function perfectly well for many years, too.

There's also an environmental argument here that appeals to me. Silicon chips take masses of energy and natural resources to produce, and suddenly not all the faulty 6-Series chipsets are going to landfill. I'm almost tempted to buy one of the "faulty" chipsets to encourage this kind of creative thinking.

However, from a commercial viewpoint, Intel has dug itself deeper into a hole. It has permanently tainted the entire Sandy Bridge product line. No news source will be able to discuss a new without mentioning the flaw and Intel's decision to sell faulty silicon. That's just the way news works.