https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/04/linus_torvalds_intel_killed_ecc/
"Linux creator Linus Torvalds has accused Intel of preventing widespread
use of error-correcting memory and being "instrumental in killing the
whole ECC industry with its horribly bad market segmentation."
ECC stands for error-correcting code. ECC memory uses additional parity
bits to verify that the data read from memory is the same as the data
that was written. Without this check, memory is vulnerable to occasional
corruption where a bit is flipped spontaneously, for example, by
background radiation. Memory can also be attacked using a technique
called Rowhammer, where rapid repeated reads of the same memory
locations can cause adjacent locations to change their state.
ECC memory solves these problems – well, ish, in the case of Rowhammer –
and has been available for over 50 years yet most personal computers do
not use it. Cost is a factor but what riles Torvalds is that Intel has
made ECC support a feature of its Xeon range, aimed at servers and
high-end workstations, and does not support it in other ranges such as
the Core series."
Via Secret Hippie, who wrote "In this case, I think Linus is correct.
All computers should come with ECC."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
