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A 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.
by joezydeco 11y ago
A 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