What is ECC?

[Diamond4D]

Can someone explain ECC Ram to me?

 

[Civilized]

'ECC' or Error Checking and Correcting permits error detection as well as correction of certain errors. Typically, ECC can detect single and dual bit errors, and can correct single bit errors.

Corrected errors are usually transparent to the operating system. The memory controller chip on the system board performs the correction and always sends corrected data to the CPU. The memory controller can inform the OS when errors are corrected, but most have no means of logging the corrections or informing the user. So, the user may never know an error ever occurred. Multi-bit errors are so rare that further detection and correction capabilities are required only in extreme cases, and would require custom memory components.

An important thing to understand about ECC memory is that ECC memory modules DO NOT perform any error detection or correction function themselves. Error checking and correction functions are carried out on the system board, not on the memory module itself. The modules simply provide the space required to store the extra bits of data that represent the condition of the real data. The computer always calculates parity and ECC data for every read and write.

ECC memory and non ECC memory cannot be mixed. I personally wouldnt suggest ECC memory unless you are running a server that needs to be as stable as possible.

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