It seems that before IBM Corp made its stunning announcement on Monday that it was suspending sales of Pentium-based personal computers, IBM engineers spoke to Intel Corp counterparts last week but according to the Wall Street Journal, the conversation didn’t go well and the two companies found there was a fundamental disagreement on the research methodology, says one knowledgeable IBMer – yet when Intel asked to see IBM’s detailed research results, IBM refused, an Intel spokesman maintains; an IBM executive denies that and says IBM engineers went so far as to run recalculations when Intel disputed some of the work – only to get the same basic result, and only when Intel stuck by its estimates that the chances of a Pentium error were one in 9,000m calculations, did IBM go public; competitors are irked that IBM should make such a high profile gesture when Pentium machines account for only about 5% of its personal computer sales anyway.
