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Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 07:26:26 -0400
From: "Donald J. Maddox" <dmaddox@scsn.net>
To: Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC <softweyr@xmission.com>
Cc: Nick Johnson <spatula@gulf.net>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: A few solutions
Reply-To: dmaddox@scsn.net
References: <Pine.BSI.3.96.970713130431.16120A-100000@pompano.pcola.gulf.net> <199707140404.WAA07219@xmission.xmission.com>
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In-Reply-To: <199707140404.WAA07219@xmission.xmission.com>; from Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC on Sun, Jul 13, 1997 at 10:04:27PM -0600
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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.