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Sorry for the uninformed question but: With RAM sizes having ballooned to very large sizes (16-32GB now fairly common for a workstation) why is non-ECC memory
by luckman212 9y ago
Sorry for the uninformed question but:
With RAM sizes having ballooned to very large sizes (16-32GB now fairly common for a workstation) why is non-ECC memory even considered? Other methods used to safeguard large sums of 0s and 1s like hard drives, SSDs, modern filesystems (ZFS, Btrfs) have builtin error-correcting mechanisms. Why is getting hit with a cosmic ray and having a bit flipped in your CSV file any more acceptable than the same thing occurring on a "server" with ECC memory?
- TylerE 9y agoBecause ECC essentially takes 9 bits per byte for storage - typical implmentation is 9 chips per stick, not 8. You also need an additional controller to actually do the error checking. So, even if it weren't for the typical "enterprise/industrial" you'd be looking at a minimum of 12.5% parts cost increase. Multiple that out * billions of ram sticks and you're talking real money for something with dubious relevance for most users.
- throwaway2048 9y agoThe controller is already built into the cpu, and cost increases aren't linear like that at all when scale is factored in, especially considering packaging and assembly overhead.
- wmf 9y agoSkylake-X without ECC: $999 Skylake-SP with ECC: $3,000 There's your answer.
- ChuckMcM 9y agoI agree with this, Intel uses it as a margin enhancer. My CPU was $150 more than the equivalent desktop processor.
- localhost 9y agoCurrent Ryzen CPUs support ECC, so presumably so will the Threadripper variant. See Lisa Su's comment(!) on Reddit repro'd on this page: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/75030-ecc-memory-amds-ryzen-deep-dive.html http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-review...
- astrodust 9y agoThat's not an answer. That's just Intel being dicks.
- wmf 9y agoI would say it's more that Intel's business model depends on price discrimination and they don't know how to survive without it.
- sliken 9y agoSilly example. All the below are 4 cores/8 threads. Xeon E3-1230 v6 kaby lake 3.5 GHz - 3.9 GHz $250 Xeon E3-1240 v6 kaby lake 3.7 GHz - 4.1 GHz $272 Core i7-7700 kaby lake 3.6 GHz - 4.2 GHz $303 Xeon E3-1270 v6 kaby lake 3.8 GHz - 4.2 GHz $328 Core i7-7700k kaby lake 4.2 GHz - 4.5 GHz $339 What's the ECC premium again? Clearly they are on pretty similar price/performance curves.
- reitzensteinm 9y agoThe premium is in workstation -> server CPUs, not desktop. The E3 line are Xeons in name only.
- redtuesday 9y agoThreadripper 1950X with ECC, 16 instead of 10 cores, 64 instead of 44 PCIe lanes and without a raid dongle which prevents certain raid modes unless you pay for them (like with Intel): $999. I love competition. Though I would prefer if there was a third competitior in the x86 CPU space and the GPU space.