robapacl
05-31-2001, 10:13 PM
I'm an old-timer in computers.I go back to the early 50's when MTBF was measured in minutes for a machine smaller than a pocket calculator in capability. I grew up on parity first and then edac ( error detection & correction ) with x-y parity ( magnetic memory cores were square plane assemblies ) which could correct 1 bit errors ........... I can't get out of the notion that today, maybe a lot of the crashes are bits dropped, undetected. I have a couple of 4 year old computers with ECC. I got a new one without and I'm building one without. I was told, if I want ECC, build a server. I chose not to. I don't feel good about that decision. I can't find any info on MTBF for the various products, or anything on systems. We had guys who spent hours every day calculating system MTBF based on individual components. Now I can't even find memory, HD or CPU numbers, hard or soft. I'm primarily concerned about soft errors. Should I quit worrying or has everybody else got their fingers crossed too. Anybody out there with data --- remember what that is? Thanks.