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Thomas R. Nicely
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mathematician who discovered a flaw in the (then) new Pentium floating point unit (FPU, a numeric coprocessor) in his personal computer was producing inconsistent results in his calculations of Brun’s constant. He notified the manufacturer of the chip, Intel Corporation, by email on 30 Oct 1994. At the time, he was a Professor of Mathematics at Lynchburg College, Virginia.
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Science Quotes by Thomas R. Nicely (2 quotes)
The [Pentium] co-processor is designed to give you 19 digits correct.… For it to give you only 10 is just utterly atrocious To get a result that poor from that co-processor is like having the transmission fall out of your Ford.
— Thomas R. Nicely
Concerning a flaw in the (then) new Pentium chip. In Peter Baker, 'Hello, Mr. Chips: Va. Teacher Who Found Intel’s Flaw', Washington Post (16 Dec 1994), A1.
Usually mathematicians have to shoot somebody to get this much publicity.
— Thomas R. Nicely
On the attention he received after finding the flaw in Intel’s Pentium chip in 1994. In Peter Baker, 'Hello, Mr. Chips: Va. Teacher Who Found Intel's Flaw', Washington Post (16 Dec 1994), A1.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
