[Gllug] Error correcting memory

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Tue, 2003-05-27 at 00:19, Chris Bell wrote:
> On Mon 26 May, Mike Brodbelt wrote:
> > 
> > ECC cannot correct errors anywhere other than in the memory modules -
> > CPU/disk errors are entirely unaffected.
> > 

>    Thanks for the info, it was as I expected, I did not think that 9 bits
> would be used everywhere on the motherboard, (although I have not noticed
> any problems with ordinary memory).

Ordinary memory is fine :-). The ECC market is higher end server class
machines, where the emphasis is on high availability and redundant
everything. Stray alpha particles can supposedly flip bits from time to
time, which could conceivably result in an OS crash. There's really no
need for you to care unless you're shooting for 5 nines reliability.

I put ECC in my servers, but only because I'm overly paranoid, the cost
differential isn't too high, and I'm not spending my own money :-).
Economically speaking, there are definitely systems where if one crash
is prevented over the lifetime of the machine, the cost differential has
immediately more than paid for itself.

Mike.



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