Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!hplabs!sri-unix!cdh@BBNCCX.ARPA From: cdh@BBNCCX.ARPA Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: Is parity *really* worth it? Message-ID: <719@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Fri, 3-Aug-84 22:03:32 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.719 Posted: Fri Aug 3 22:03:32 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 6-Aug-84 03:32:29 EDT Lines: 17 From: "Carl D. Howe"Concerning ECC: be careful. Some of the fancy VLSI ECC chips have such large die sizes and have been pushed to be so fast, that THEIR soft failure rate is higher than the RAMs they protect!! ECC also costs a lot more. On the other hand, it does allow you to continue running with completely nonfunctional chips, a feature if you are looking at a nonstop type of application. I guess my point is that all types of error detection/correction techniques have their places. The hard part is choosing the right point in the design space to run your application. Doing some rudimentary failure calculations at least gives you a point where you can start making tradeoffs and know whether you are winning or losing. Carl