[rdiddly]

In other words, sometimes competition is a race to the bottom. But then a bug like this tends to have a "reset" effect on everybody in the market.

I look at a statement like "Our competition is moving much faster than we are" as craven and lacking vision. At that point a wisened old Zen master type figure should've stepped forward.

Competition isn't about imitating the competitor anyway, is it? It's about differentiation, right? Maybe not. But it's not like you can't easily market literally any reasonable decision you make. Paul Masson wineries bragged about selling "no wine before its time" and turned their lack of "velocity" into marketing cachet. (Even though they weren't even unique in that regard.) There's no theoretical reason why Intel couldn't market itself as "the accurate chipmaker," keep on validating "lavishly"(1) and let AMD rush headlong into this kind of bug.

(1) Obviously not... but unfortunately you never know it's not enough validation until it's not enough validation.