Intel Corporation notified several customers as well as certain media resources about a glitch found in its Itanium 2 processors 900MHz and 1.0GHz. In certain cases these CPUs behave erratically or even crash. Those, who already have the mentioned Intel Itanium 2 processors may now contact the vendor of their system or lower the core-clock to 800MHz.

According to Intel’s spokesperson quoted by ZDNet, errors with Intel Itanium 2 processor 900 and 1000MHz only occur with a specific set of operations in a specific sequence with specific data. Reportedly, the electrical glitch was found by a PC maker earlier this year with only 900 and 1000MHz processors during stress-test. 800MHz chips are unaffected.

The bug is definitely an unusual one since it was revealed nearly a year after the processors were announced, however, it definitely affects Intel’s reputation as a provider of high-end server solutions, though, Intel will replace all buggy Itanium 2 processors on request. The company now supplies special software that can determine if the chip is a problematic one.

IBM now puts its x450 Itanium 2 servers on hold, while HP continues to supply Itanium 2-based systems after thorough testing. Leading computer makers now try to track the faulty processors and replace them.

According to the current statements, Intel’s Madison CPUs to come out later this year do not have the mentioned problem.