Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!amdahl!pacbell!pbhya!whh
From: whh@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT Memory - No Error Checking or Parity !
Keywords: Memory,errors,parity
Message-ID: <20953@pbhya.PacBell.COM>
Date: 28 Oct 88 17:01:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: pbhya.20953
References: <549@gt-eedsp.UUCP> <1807@desint.UUCP>
Organization: Pacific * Bell, Oakland, CA
Lines: 19

In article <1807@desint.UUCP>, geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) writes:
> Needless to say, the result was hard-to-trace problems.  I think
> (though I'm not sure) that they installed parity again on the 7600.  I'm
> pretty sure that the Cray machines have ECC memory.  One thing about
> Seymour -- he learns from his mistakes.

The story I heard was that Cray was told that USGov purchasing *required*
parity on computers, and that--therefore--he *had* to have it--or his
primary customers wouldn't be allowed to buy the machines.  Cray is
reputed to have grumbled and complained about how parity slowed things
down and added six inches to height of the box to add the parity bits &
circuits.

    --Hal

=========================================================================
  Hal Heydt                             |    "Hafnium plus Holmium is
  Analyst, Pacific*Bell                 |     one-point-five, I think."
  415-645-7708                          |       --Dr. Jane Robinson
  {att,bellcore,sun,ames,pyramid}!pacbell!pbhya!whh