Intel said Monday that it has found a design flaw in a recently released chip and is working with laptop makers to replace affected computers.
Sales lost while the company rushes out a replacement chip combined with the cost of replacing computers with the flawed chip, will cost the company $1 billion, it said.
Intel said it shipped 8 million of the defective chips, but complete PCs with those chips have only been on sale since Jan. 9, so "relatively few" of them have reached consumers. The main processing chips in these computers are branded "Core i5" and "Core i7."
The affected chips aren't the main processors, which are based on the "Sandy Bridge" technology that Intel announced in January, but a support chip. The flaw means it may degrade with use over months or years, slowing down the transfer of data to and from the computer's hard drives and DVD drives.
Intel said consumers can "continue to use their systems with confidence, while working with their computer manufacturer for a permanent solution."
