Erratum

An erratum or corrigendum (plurals: errata, corrigenda) is a correction of a book. An erratum is most commonly issued shortly after its original text is published. Patches to security issues in a computer program are also sometimes called errata. As a general rule, publishers issue an erratum for a production error (i.e. an error introduced during the publishing process) and a corrigendum for an author's error.

Errata sheets

"Errata, lists of errors and their corrections, may take the form of loose, inserted sheets or bound-in pages. An errata sheet is definitely not a usual part of a book. It should never be supplied to correct simple typographical errors (which may be rectified in a later printing) or to insert additions to, or revisions of, the printed text (which should wait for the next edition of the book). It is a device to be used only in extreme cases where errors severe enough to cause misunderstanding are detected too late to correct in the normal way but before the finished book is distributed. Then the errors may be listed with their locations and their corrections on a sheet that is tipped in, either before or after the book is bound, or laid in loose, usually inside the front cover of the book. (Tipping and inserting must be done by hand, thus adding considerably to the cost of the book.)" ^[1]

Meanings in a non-editorial context

Design errors and mistakes in a CPU's hardwired microcode may also be referred to as errata. One well-publicized example is Intel's "FDIV" erratum in early Pentium processors,^[2] known as the Pentium FDIV bug. This gave incorrect answers to a floating-point division instruction (FDIV) for a small set of numbers, due to an incorrect lookup table inside the Pentium chip.

See also

• Bible errata

References

1. ^ "The Chicago Manual of Style". The University of Chicago Press, 14th Edition 1993, ISBN (cloth) 0-226-10389-7, p. 42, section 1.107.
2. ^ "FDIV Replacement Program". Intel. http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentium/fdiv/. Retrieved 2010-02-10.