Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 08:25:21 -0400 From: "Donald J. Maddox" <root@scsn.net> To: Nadav Eiron <nadav@barcode.co.il> Cc: dmaddox@scsn.net, Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC <softweyr@xmission.com>, Nick Johnson <spatula@gulf.net>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: A few solutions Message-ID: <19970714082521.61598@scsn.net> In-Reply-To: <33CA1547.AD3@barcode.co.il>; from Nadav Eiron on Mon, Jul 14, 1997 at 03:02:15PM %2B0300 References: <Pine.BSI.3.96.970713130431.16120A-100000@pompano.pcola.gulf.net> <199707140404.WAA07219@xmission.xmission.com> <19970714072626.64852@scsn.net> <33CA1547.AD3@barcode.co.il>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, Jul 14, 1997 at 03:02:15PM +0300, Nadav Eiron wrote: > Donald J. Maddox wrote: > > > > On Sun, Jul 13, 1997 at 10:04:27PM -0600, Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC wrote: > > > > > > Parity RAM won't prevent errors from happening, it will just tell you > > > when they do. The system will respond by rebooting, which really > > > doesn't get you much. You probably just ended up with better (or faster) > > > RAM than what you had before. > > > > > > High-end UNIX workstations are often equipped with ECC RAM, which can > > > actually "fix" one-bit errors in memory accesses. This is yet another > > > area in which garden-variety PCs don't stack up to workstations, either > > > in performance or cost. ;^) > > > > > > Buy good quality RAM, parity or not, and be happy. > > > > Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken here, but I believe that there is > > no such thing as "ECC RAM". ECC is a function of the motherboard, no? If > > your motherboard supports ECC _and_ you have parity RAM, you can use ECC. > > No. What you need is ECC motherboard and ECC RAM. To be able to correct > memeory errors you need more bits than what's available on a parity > SIMM. Some ECC implementation (the one I have in mind is the AlphaServer > 1000, don't know if Pentium MBs have this too) use standard RAM, but in > greater quantity. The AlphaServer 1000 has banks of 5 standard SIMMs, > instead of the 4 that would otherwise be required for its 128 bit memory > bus. It uses the extra memory to implement ECC. Later models used 4 ECC > SIMMs instead. > > Nadav Well, all I can say is that according to the User's Manual for my ASUS P/I-P55T2P4 mainboard, all I need for ECC is parity RAM, and ECC enabled. I notice, however, that the ECC supported by this MB only supports 1-bit error correction... Maybe the ECC RAM you two are speaking of allows for more sophisticated error correction?
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19970714082521.61598>