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From: adoyle@bbn.com (Allan Doyle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next,comp.arch
Subject: Re: parity is for farmers?
Message-ID: <64346@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 24 May 91 16:59:42 GMT
References: <1991May21.232331.24888@cs.umn.edu> <1991May22.234515.24685@milton.u.washington.edu>
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Reply-To: adoyle@vax.bbn.com (Allan Doyle)
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In article <1991May22.234515.24685@milton.u.washington.edu> mrc@milton.u.washington.edu (Mark Crispin) writes:
>Semiconductor memory is a different story.  My experience with
>semiconductor memory suggests that failures are catastrophic and
>massive.  Also, modern software using virtual memory tends to scatter
>kernal critical pages throughout physical memory.

True enough, but whatever happened to the Alpha particle hits we
were hearing so much about a few years ago. Alpha particle hits would
affect only single bits by flipping the bit or erasing or setting
the bit. I was under the impression that the newer memories were
getting increasingly vulnerable since the bit size was shrinking and
the energy needed to flip a bit was decreasing. Have the semiconductor
manufacturers figured out how to shield the chips with a special
coating or something?

	Allan



Allan Doyle                                        adoyle@bbn.com
Bolt Beranek and Newman,  Incorporated             +1 (617) 873-3398
10 Moulton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138             USA