According to the popular computer architecture textbook *Computer Organization and Design *by Turing Award winners John Hennessy and David Patterson: The Pentium floating-point divide bug even made the "Top 10 List" of the *David
Letterman Late Show* on television.
I have been unable to verify this. The bug was reported in October 1994 and remained in the news until early 1995. I could find nothing relevant in the Top Ten List Archive for late 1994 <http://www.mudslide.net/TopTen/lswd1994.html> or early 1995 <http://www.mudslide.net/TopTen/lswd1995.html>. In early January, there was the Top Ten Signs You Bought a Bad Computer <http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/archive/ls_topten_archive1995/ls_topten_archive_19950105.shtml>, but it has no mention of Intel or math. I did find a Master's thesis <https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278276/m2/1/high_res_d/1002656820-burns.pdf> that cites Jarrett in saying that "David Letterman included a Pentium™ joke in his nightly monologue": Jarrett, Jim. "A Postmortem on the Pentium Processor Crisis." Unpublished
manuscript prepared for lnteleads, 1994.
I cannot find this document, however, and Jim Jarrett passed away in 2012 <https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/mercurynews/obituary.aspx?n=james-jarrett&pid=156322551> . There is a satirical Top Ten list <http://www.polylith.com/~jerparks/jokes/Intel.shtml>: 9.9999973251 - Your old PC is too accurate.
8.9999163362 - Provides really good alibi when the IRS calls. 7.9999414610 - Attracted by Intel's new You don't need to know what's inside ad campaign. 6.9999831538 - It redefines computing -- and mathematics! 5.9999835137 - You've always wondered what it would be like to be a plaintiff. 4.9999999021 - Current paperweight not big enough. 3.9998245917 - Takes concept of floating point to a whole new level. 2.9991523619 - You always round off to the nearest hundred anyway. 1.9999103517 - Got a great deal from Jet Propulsion Laboratory!
And the number one reason to buy a Pentium: 0.9999999998 - It'll probably work!
The same page <http://www.polylith.com/~jerparks/jokes/Intel.shtml> includes this joke: "You know what goes great with those defective Pentium chips?
Defective Pentium salsa!" (David Letterman)
I conclude that David Letterman joked about the Pentium in a monologue (although I have only circumstantial evidence) not in a Top Ten List. This is my first foray into computing history. Please let me know if you have additional information, if my reasoning is unsound, or if I should do anything besides notifying the authors and publisher. (I'm acquainted with David Patterson but would not cold email John Hennessy.) Ellen Spertus Professor of Computer Science