Re: Linux & ECC memory

Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk)
Sat, 16 Nov 1996 15:02:40 +0000 (GMT)


> The real question is, what can we do with this sort of information in the
> free-software / no-support context? It could be fun to tinker with
> anyway, and maybe even profitable eventually, but somebody's gotta come
> up with a practical way to use it.

Exactly the same, it phones you and says "Help help buy me a new SIMM" - and
it costs you about $2000 less. One problem with all the ECC stuff is there
seems to be no standard for handling it. I know for example how to get
the fault address of a few motherboards but not all.

The Pentium Pro handles some of this more nicely and generates machine check
exceptions on dodgy events (something mainframe folks take for granted), other
PC cards like the WDT501 will generate interrupts and/or external events
on things like fan stop, overheat, bad 12v or 5v. The PC world appears to
lack a coherent and unified approach to the issues.

Alan