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From: wsineel@wsooti01.info.win.tue.nl (Eelco Vriezekolk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Memory Parity. Is It Really Needed
Message-ID: <1865@svin02.info.win.tue.nl>
Date: 4 Apr 91 14:36:43 GMT
References: <3370017@hpsgwp.sgp.hp.com> <1991Mar24.094904.9519@eecs.wsu.edu> <2217@pdxgate.UUCP>
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Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
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In article <2217@pdxgate.UUCP> berggren@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Eric Berggren) writes:
>wbonner@eecs.wsu.edu (Wim Bonner) writes:
>                                                        nice touch ;) -v
>>In article <3370017@hpsgwp.sgp.hp.com> plim@hpsgwp.sgp.hp.com (Peter Lim) writes:
[PC with and without memory parity]
>
>  The part about memory parity I don't understand is that I am told one
>wants memory parity checking done to "prevent loss of important data". Well
>everytime I got a memory parity error, I lost important data because it
>brought the whole system to a halt. What next? Helicopters with emergency
>ejector seats? wierd...

In professional situations it could be much more important
that you get *reliable* data than that you get data at all. If I
did my financial administration on a PC (making regular
backups, ofcourse) I'd prefer a total crash to some errors
slipping into the database.
That's the point for memory parity checking. It is the same
reason as why you do write-verify on disks, only these kinds
of errors are more easily recoverable.

`Fault tolerance' consists of both interception of errors
(very important) and automatic recovery of errors (very
useful).

-- 
Eelco Vriezekolk, wsineel@win.tue.nl, (+31)40-118338.
 Software engineer looking for career in any civilized country. Software
 development for technical uses. Experience with various programming
 languages, hardware, AI, user interfaces, etc.