[dspillett]

A key difference between then and now is how much easier it is to distribute software/firmware workarounds or fixes. From an end users perspective replacing the CPU might be seen as far easier than updating their software. A software fix would affect performance, so of course it isn't as simple as that, but this difference is part of the dynamic.

Also, as a direct user of the CPU, if the fdiv bug would impact you it would affect you often rather than once every three years which is the impact frequency of this fault.

Another matter that affected the fdiv bug is that the Pentium line was the first time a CPU had been aggressively marketed directly at the general public in quite the way it was. Prior to that only manufacturers and techies would have known about it and they were used to errata for hardware components. The public more generally had an impression that hardware (at least undamaged hardware) was reliable and only software had bugs, and the fdiv bug invalidated that view of reality causing a bit of a panic.