What's the difference between ECC and Non-ECC RAM?

[farfignugen]

Been bugging me lately, any one know?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

error corrected and non error corrected

 

[jackschmittusa]

ECC was designed for servers crunching scientific data and large databases and such that were very error sensitive. It also began life when ram was less reliable than it is today.

In times past, you could find support for it in some mainstream mbs as well as almost all server mbs.

The average computer does not need it. There is also a slight performance penalty in using it as it performs the the error check and corrections functions realtime during all operations.

 

[pkme2]

Some reading info.
http://www.4allmemory.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=faq.details&faq_id=100

 

[Rubycon]

Low altitude bit flips were more common when solder used in RAM chips had more radium in it. Alpha irradiation would cause them. At higher altitudes cosmic radiation can cause them.

 

[farfignugen]

wow thanks guys!