I read the articles at <http://www.eetimes.com/news/98/1012news/ibm.html> and <http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/401/ogorman.html> with interest.
>Their research showed that you should expect one error per month, caused >by cosmic rays, per 256MB RAM. But that was in 1996. Chip densities have increased considerably since then. Each new generation of memory chips packs 4X as many transitors/capacitors into the same area as the previous generation. What are current memory chip densities? If we estimate 1 to 2 new generations, could we then be looking at 4 to 16 errors per month per 256Mb? >Even at 1GB RAM, cosmic rays would only account for one crash per week at most. with 1Gb of memory and today's densities could we be looking at 4 to 16 crashes per week? What about people at higher elevations? Yours Uncle George p.s. It does seem that newer computers and OS's are less stable. My old Color Classic is like a rock. Maybe one crash every three years, if even that. Katie Munker's mum had a Color Classic with not a single crash in the three years she had it.(until a moving man dropped it from a rather high height. Then it really did crash...literally!) On the other hand newer computers and OS's are called on to do more. -- 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
