Intel last week corrected a glitch in the software for its newly-released Pentium 4 motherboards that might have caused users' data to be overwritten, a company representative said on Tuesday.
A version of the BIOS software for motherboards that support the Pentium 4 contained an error that in lab tests indicated it could overwrite data, Intel spokesman George Alfs said. The flawed software reached PC makers, but a corrected version of the BIOS was sent to the manufacturers last week, Alfs said.
The Pentium 4 was introduced Monday, and Pentium 4 PCs from manufacturers went on sale the same day. All of the chip maker's OEM (original-equipment manufacturer) customers are aware of the problem, and the faulty software should not have gone into any shipping systems, Alfs said.
"We saw some code that could overwrite other code, so we simply patched that in the BIOS," Alfs said.
"Any users, when they purchase the systems, should have the latest BIOS upgrade," he added.http://www.intel.com.
