I am not sure about the P4, but earlier chip did not pass the ECC bits through the processor bus, so you could not detect data errors between the processor and memory. This prevents one from getting Mainframe reliability with an Intel processor.
-----Original Message----- From: Scott Courtney [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 1:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: URGENT! really low performance. A related question... On Monday 17 February 2003 01:08 pm, Adam Thornton wrote: > On Mon, Feb 17, 2003 at 04:08:48PM +0800, John Summerfield wrote: > > Linux is Linux. Don't confuse Windows' reliability with the > > reliability of IA32-based boxes. They can be built to be very > > reliable indeed, and even the cheapest PC clones today are much more > > reliable than mainframes of years gone by > > Yeah, but gone *way* by. Reliability in consumer-grade machines is > pretty dreadful. Even high-end (e.g., Compaq and Dell server-grade machines) Intel boxen don't seem to have the kind of quality in connectors and cables that mainframes do. And for some reason the Intel world seems to like to put cheap cooling fans with poor bearings into even (for this arena) expensive machines. I've also seen less attention paid, in the Intel world, to issues like circuit board mounting rigidity, which can allow slight flexing of the board during initial assembly or component replacement. Chips rarely "wear out", but board failures still happen. Why? Mechanical and thermal problems with the boards and the chassis environment. Microcracks in solder connections on boards. Vibration- induced failures of IC bondout pad welds. Static. And so on. I think it would be entirely possible to build an Intel machine that is as reliable as a zSeries. It would end up costing just about the same, because most of the cost isn't in the CPU chip itself. Sometimes you do, in fact, get what you pay for. Scott -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott D. Courtney, Senior Engineer Sine Nomine Associates [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.sinenomine.net/
