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by rambambram 988 days ago
Enlighten us then.
2 comments

No one else but you can provide you with experience. Hardware has both bugs (defects) and it fails, sometimes in ways not gracefully. An experienced multidisciplinary developer is certain to encounter them at some point. Depending on the discipline this may be a very common occurrence or it may be rare. Devs working at either extremes of scale are more likely to encounter these problems. Defects may go unnoticed due to software workarounds of all things

Here is just one example to get you started: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/08/10/bh-2011-bit-squa...

https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/secure/design/confid...

A very common problem is bugs caused by cosmic radiation if you want an example. But bugs in silicon are also not rare and really difficult to catch. You really got to stick your neck out and hope you can actually proof that through stuff like debugging with electron microscopes. Especially if it becomes an issue of responsibility between different departments. The monetary stakes make this all the more difficult.

Hardware bugs are simply capsuled better so people dont recognize them as such. Its the same mechanism at play as for people who assume software normally functions. They are also just unaware of the inner working.

Stuff is just really complicated and people should manage their expectations. I get that going from assuming to have a solid base to no such thing existing is difficult to handle but there is no sensible way around that. Not doing so gets you stuff like the article.