ECC memory is supposed to correct single-bit errors that can be caused by radiation and other freak events of the quantum-mechanical field in which we live. That sounds like a good thing that I would like to have and an important feature for a machine that will be up for months between reboots.
However, ECC modules cost more than standard modules. Also, most motherboards don't list ECC support in their feature lists. I assume that this means that either plugging in ECC modules would lead to non-function, or that they would function as standard memory, without using their error-correcting capability (rather pointless). Choosing to use ECC memory then also means you get to pick from a smaller set of motherboards than you would otherwise, and will probably pay more for the board because only high-end boards have ECC support. How many of you are using non-ECC (standard) memory on long-uptime machines? Are you having any problems because of it? Do you think ECC is worth the premium? My current main machine does have ECC memory. I've not made a habit of looking at /proc/ram to see whether my machine has had RAM errors, but currently it shows none. Chipset ECC capability : ECC with hardware scrubber Current ECC mode : ECC with hardware scrubber Bank Size Type ECC SBE MBE 0 128M RDR Y 0 0 1 128M RDR Y 0 0 2 128M RDR Y 0 0 3 128M RDR Y 0 0 4 128M RDR Y 0 0 5 128M RDR Y 0 0 6 128M RDR Y 0 0 7 128M RDR Y 0 0 For background, here's what Wikipedia says: Memory controllers in most modern PCs can typically detect, and correct errors of a single bit per 64 bit "word" (the unit of bus transfer), and detect (but not correct) errors of two bits per 64 bit word. Some systems also 'scrub' the errors, by writing the corrected version back to memory. The BIOS in some computers, and operating systems such as Linux, allow counting of detected and corrected memory errors, in part to help identify failing memory modules before the problem becomes catastrophic. Unfortunately, most modern PCs are supplied with memory modules that have no parity or ECC bits. ... A reasonable rule of thumb is to expect one bit error, per month, per gigabyte of memory. Actual error rates vary widely. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_RAM) -- Henry House +1 530 753 3361 ext. 13 Please don't send me HTML mail! My mail system frequently rejects it. The unintelligible text that may follow is a digital signature. See <http://hajhouse.org/pgp> to find out how to use it. My OpenPGP key: <http://hajhouse.org/hajhouse.asc>.
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