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From: John Dyson <dyson@dyson.iquest.net>
Message-Id: <199701021655.LAA11333@dyson.iquest.net>
Subject: Re: bootloader & memory test...
To: hans@brandinnovators.com (Hans Zuidam)
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 11:55:31 -0500 (EST)
Cc: avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <199701021356.NAA05612@truk.brandinnovators.com> from "Hans Zuidam" at Jan 2, 97 01:56:03 pm
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> > Darren Reed wrote:
> > I haven't delved too deeply, but how hard would it be to have the kernel's
> > idle loop do a memory test ?
> Hard, I guess.  For one you do not have all memory available to
> test as the kernel and many processes are using (more or less)
> random portions.  Secondly: what would you do when you do find an
> error?  Raising a panic is in many cases inapropriate.
> 
Some machines do "memory scrubbing" and let their ECC mechanisms
correct errors.  (This would decrease the prob. of multi-bit errors.)

John