>On Saturday, April 27, 2002, at 11:55 PM, munker wrote: > >> A number of years back IBM did some research into the cause of memory >> errors in computers. >> >> Their findings were that cosmic rays were the principle cause. >> >> It seems that cosmic rays striking the transistors in the memory chip >> can >> cause one or more of the transistors to switch high. >> >> To prove it they moved their test computers 50 feet underground and over >> the next 6 month period found that all memory errors ceased. >> >> With new programs and operating systems requiring more memory are we as >> computer users looking at necessarily less reliability and stability? >> >> I mean the more transistors there are then the more of them that are >> going >> to be flipped high by cosmic rays. Also with manufacturers going to ever >> higher density memory chips the greater the chance that the same cosmic >> ray >> will flip more transistors than if the chip was a low density device. > >Their research showed that you should expect one error per month, caused >by cosmic rays, per 256MB RAM. > ><http://www.eetimes.com/news/98/1012news/ibm.html> ><http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/401/ogorman.html> > >At one failure per month per 256MB, this is largely a non-issue for end >users. It's a big deal, however, to servers and server farms that employ >"big iron"; that is, servers with multiples of Gigabytes of RAM. > >> (If you drop a bomb on a high density population centre like a densely >> crowded city you will wipe out more people than if you dropped the same >> bomb in a rural area.) >> >> So my question is could putting more memory in your iMac actually make >> it >> less stable? > >Technically? Yes. Realistically, though, this study has little impact on >end users. Even at 1GB RAM, cosmic rays would only account for one crash >per week at most. I'm at mean sea level (well, a few feet above), and >with 512MB RAM, I only crash when -I- cause the crash.
Jeremy, thanks so much for the reply. You are an amazing font of knowledge. Best Regards Uncle George for the munker bunch -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | SPECIAL LIST PRICES - Apple iMac CDROMs from $79.99, iMac DVD CDROMs from $99.99 3 port USB Hub $14.99, 40GB Hard Drive Upgrades $119 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
