Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:41:15 -0700 From: Paul Allen <nospam@ugcs.caltech.edu> To: "M.Hirsch" <webmaster@hirsch.it> Cc: Dmitry Pryanishnikov <dmitry@atlantis.dp.ua>, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 6.x CVSUP today crashes with zero load ... Message-ID: <20060627004115.GA12597@groat.ugcs.caltech.edu> In-Reply-To: <44A06FFB.40104@hirsch.it> References: <20060626081029.L1114@ganymede.hub.org> <20060626140333.M38418@fledge.watson.org> <20060626235355.Q95667@atlantis.atlantis.dp.ua> <44A04FD2.1030001@hirsch.it> <20060627011512.N95667@atlantis.atlantis.dp.ua> <44A06233.1090704@hirsch.it> <20060627014335.E87535@atlantis.atlantis.dp.ua> <44A068A7.3090403@hirsch.it> <20060627020819.L3403@atlantis.atlantis.dp.ua> <44A06FFB.40104@hirsch.it>
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>From "M.Hirsch" <webmaster@hirsch.it>, Tue, Jun 27, 2006 at 01:38:35AM +0200: > Sticks don't just break on a single bit. From my experience, a stick > that's got any problems at all, will cause even more trouble soon... > If a hardware problem isn't worth panick'ing, what else is? > (don't answer this one please, this was a rhetorical question - to those > who didn't get it...) As has been mentioned by other people already: this position is severely ahistorical. ECC has traditionally been motivated by a desire to 1) provide reliable computing operations 2) ensure high-availability (uptime) The very originating purpose of ECC was to keep the computer going in the face of an alpha particle strike. Alpha particles flip *single* bits. ECC was never intended to detect crummy, failing hardware: that's a use people have shoe-horned it into, but for which it is not entirely suited.
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