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Date:      Tue, 15 Sep 2015 17:34:44 -0500
From:      Jim Thompson <jim@netgate.com>
To:        Igor Mozolevsky <igor@hybrid-lab.co.uk>
Cc:        Dieter BSD <dieterbsd@gmail.com>, Hackers freeBSD <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: ECC support
Message-ID:  <8435FBF3-2F8E-4A25-ABEA-B7038AFFE372@netgate.com>
In-Reply-To: <CADWvR2h4XdYfy3i6zjLqC04uqihNwL9QtTgGN%2BZ8QbAkh9=%2BZA@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CAA3ZYrBXZn1WpHWYGJYWJDPsk7iDahCas8RhnHC4w%2Babf4w4hA@mail.gmail.com> <41EFCF21-D3B0-4EC4-8EAB-417CA33821FC@netgate.com> <CADWvR2h4XdYfy3i6zjLqC04uqihNwL9QtTgGN%2BZ8QbAkh9=%2BZA@mail.gmail.com>

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> On Sep 15, 2015, at 5:19 PM, Igor Mozolevsky <igor@hybrid-lab.co.uk> =
wrote:
>=20
> On 15 September 2015 at 22:52, Jim Thompson <jim@netgate.com =
<mailto:jim@netgate.com>> wrote:
>=20
> <snip>
>=20
> Errors are corrected "on-the-fly," corrected data is almost never =
placed back in memory. If the same corrupt data is read again, the =
correction process is repeated. Replacing the data in memory would =
require processing overhead that could accumulate and significantly =
diminish system performance. If the error occurred because of random =
events and isn't a defect in the memory, the memory address will be =
cleaned of the error when the data is overwritten with other data.
>=20
> <snip>=20
>=20
> Just to correct a small oversight- most (if not all?) boards have an =
option to scrub ECC memory in the background so as to prevent single bit =
(recoverable) errors from turning into double bit (irrecoverable but =
detectable) errors ;-)

I think you=E2=80=99ll find that the default for =E2=80=98scrub=E2=80=99 =
is off on most (perhaps all) boards.  There are reasons, and these =
relate directly to =E2=80=9Csignificantly diminish system =
performance=E2=80=9D, (above), as well as the greatly increased RAM =
sizes in use today.

=E2=80=99Scrub' was popular about a decade ago, when DDR2 RAM was around =
$100/GB.  DDR3-1600 is about $6/GB today.

Jim





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