1.   Rising public outrage eventually forced Intel to reverse its policy and offer replacement chips to anyone who wanted one.

2.   By Christmas, Intel had retreated and promised a replacement chip to anyone who asked, but it was too late to stem the tidal wave of Intel jokes.

3.   In an about-face, Intel pledged free replacement chips to owners of personal computers powered by its Pentium chip.

4.   Intel Corp., maker of the Pentium chip, is no longer requiring that individuals justify their need for a replacement chip.

5.   It may still be two months or more before replacement chips are widely available.

6.   Not too long ago, Quikdata had sold me a fairly obscure replacement chip.

7.   The company said it evaluated requests for replacement chips on a case-by-case basis.

8.   The replacement chips are beginning to trickle into the market and are expected to be available in larger volumes in the next month or so.

9.   NEC said the question of whether Intel will provide replacement chips to NEC free of charge remains to be settled.