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Wow, it wasn't even the RAM, it was the packaging, that had in turn made the RAM chips also radioactive!
by matheweis 11y ago
Wow, it wasn't even the RAM, it was the packaging, that had in turn made the RAM chips also radioactive!
- joezydeco 11y agoA stray alpha particle from the packaging won't turn the RAM die radioactive, but it will flip bits which is the problem Gosling is describing.
- matheweis 11y agoHe says the packaging was radioactive, but (I assume) it would have been discarded at the factory during assembly. So where did the particles come from at runtime?
- tveita 11y ago"Packaging" in the context of integrated circuits usually refers to the case of the chip - the little black ceramic or plastic square with pins to connect the chip to the rest of the circuit.
- theandrewbailey 11y agoThe CPU packaging is the material that the literal silicon is mounted on and sealed with. The CPU pins go through it. Sometimes there is a metal heat spreader attached to it. It's not the plastic wrap and box product packaging. Wikipedia has some good photos of the UltraSPARC II CPU packaging: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraSPARC_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraSPARC_II