RE: new utility for decoding salinfo records

Luck, Tony
2005-01-11T21:23:48Z

>1) almost all nodes get some SBEs once in a while. Over time these
>accumulate in the directory. We don't consider this to be a problem.
>Gamma rays do happen and if you have a big enough target and
>you sample for a long enough time, you are bound to catch a few.

<nitpick>The bit flips are more likely the result of neutrons than
gamma rays ... though the neutrons in question were produced by "cosmic"
rays hitting the upper atmosphere.</nitpick>

>Do other people consider 1SBE/hr on a DIMM a real problem that needs to
>be fixed?

That's way too high for background neutrons. Possibly a DIMM that
got zapped by a static discharge sometime in its life? Or just a
manufacturing defect small enough to get past the normal testing
process?

Whether it is a problem depends on the liklihood of it cascading into
a multi-bit error ... for which I don't have any data.

-Tony