Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!think!bloom-beacon!gatech!gt-eedsp!jensen
From: jensen@gt-eedsp.UUCP (P. Allen Jensen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: NeXT Memory - No Error Checking or Parity !
Keywords: Memory,errors,parity
Message-ID: <549@gt-eedsp.UUCP>
Date: 25 Oct 88 17:19:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: gt-eedsp.549
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 20

Ok, Straight from a NeXT salesrep in response to the question:
Q: Does the memory have a parity check bit ?
A: "No"

The reason was that "memory is reliable enough that the added cost
was not justified."  If you have ever worked on some older equipment
without parity, your opinion may differ.  Could an expert on RAM
chips respond ?   Is memory really "reliable enough" ?

I was supprised to learn that the cold-start diagnostics do not
check memory for errors - they just look to see if there is any
memory there.  If I had a NeXT, I think I would have a crontab
entry to check memory every day/night !

P. Allen Jensen
-- 
P. Allen Jensen
Georgia Tech, School of Electrical Engineering, Atlanta, GA  30332-0250
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