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- Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!uwm.edu!rpi!batcomputer!lynx@msc.cornell.edu!leah.msc.cornell.edu!maynard
- From: maynard@leah.msc.cornell.edu (Maynard J. Handley)
- Subject: Re: P5 v. PowerPC (WAS: Where the mac really wins)
- Message-ID: <1992Dec16.022146.5105@msc.cornell.edu>
- Sender: news@msc.cornell.edu
- Organization: Cornell-Materials-Science-Center
- References: <1992Dec9.172738.12812@infonode.ingr.com> <trimble.723937512@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu> <WAGNER.92Dec10161223@grace.math.uh.edu> <BzBFv7.ErD@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:21:46 GMT
- Lines: 28
-
- In article <BzBFv7.ErD@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>,
- ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Iskandar Taib) writes:
- >In article <WAGNER.92Dec10161223@grace.math.uh.edu>
- >wagner@grace.math.uh.edu (David Wagner) writes:
- >
- >>I sure hope the PowerPC won't have to use IBM `Power'-style
- >>memory boards. Those things cost an arm and a leg!
- >
- >Is this supposed to be a flame against PCs and Clones? If so its
- >a little off-base. Most current PS/2s and clones can take 32 or
- >64 Meg in SIMMs on the motherboard.
- >
- No it is not a flame against PCs and clones, you paranoid. He is talking
- about the memory boards for RS/6000 workstations. Indeed the things cost a
- bomb, but look what they give you---each 32bits is actually 40 bits of
- hardware. These 40 bits provide error-correction and detection---I think
- they can correct two-bit failtures in the 32bits and detect three-bit
- failtures. They also have logic to maks out the bad bits and keep on going
- with the good ones. Beats the hell out pathetic parity RAM.
-
- Right now many people think this is over-kill, but with RAM/machine growing
- and the individual components of the RAM shrinking so that they are more
- susceptible to being screwed up by cosmic rays and enviromental
- radiocativity, it's going to become more important. My guess would be that
- it may be an option for "server" class machine initially, and will start to
- move into personal machine when these are routinely holding 64MB or more.
-
- Maynard
-