4 ms·

I wouldn't be so sure about that. My PC has an overclocked AMD processor with 32GB non-ECC RAM (because ECC ram wasn't even available when I bought it, let alon

I wouldn't be so sure about that. My PC has an overclocked AMD processor with 32GB non-ECC RAM (because ECC ram wasn't even available when I bought it, let alone affordable). Even if the software was 100% perfect, such a machine is expected to crash once or twice every year or so under full load just from the failure rate of the chips (cosmic radiation / quantum tunnelling effects). Especially RAM seems to have become fairly error-prone nowadays.

mrkeen 7y ago
What software are you using that once or twice a year doesn't count as "rarely"? My Viaplay app stops streaming and tells me I'm not connected to the internet several times a day (when I'm obviously still connected to the internet.) Several times a week my phone's Netflix state doesn't match my TV's state, so I'm either not presented with the controls or when I press them they do nothing. Cosmic bit-flips are rare enough to be newsworthy. https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/05/20/cosmic-rays-flipping-bits/ https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/05/20/cosmic-rays-flippi... If the faults were with the hardware, I'd expect the errors to be spread around the software that I use. But Firefox and Gmail always work for me (even if the JavaScript I'm served makes the machine unresponsive), whereas Netflix, Viaplay and HBO constantly misbehave.
- jonathanstrange 7y ago
  Let's not turn this into a discussion of the meaning of "rare". We don't disagree, I believe. Sure, software bugs are more frequent. The point is merely that non-ECC RAM is fairly buggy by design and no amount of software will eradicate the crashes due to RAM faults. If you have 32GB or 64GB of RAM these should appear not too rarely, provided you actually use that RAM. Standard desktop CPUs also have surprisingly high error rate, but it's hard to find good figures. I've tried to find some, but apparently Intel & Co. hold them under wraps nowadays.

mrkeen 7y ago

What software are you using that once or twice a year doesn't count as "rarely"? My Viaplay app stops streaming and tells me I'm not connected to the internet several times a day (when I'm obviously still connected to the internet.) Several times a week my phone's Netflix state doesn't match my TV's state, so I'm either not presented with the controls or when I press them they do nothing. Cosmic bit-flips are rare enough to be newsworthy. https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/05/20/cosmic-rays-flipping-bits/ https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/05/20/cosmic-rays-flippi... If the faults were with the hardware, I'd expect the errors to be spread around the software that I use. But Firefox and Gmail always work for me (even if the JavaScript I'm served makes the machine unresponsive), whereas Netflix, Viaplay and HBO constantly misbehave.

jonathanstrange 7y ago
Let's not turn this into a discussion of the meaning of "rare". We don't disagree, I believe. Sure, software bugs are more frequent. The point is merely that non-ECC RAM is fairly buggy by design and no amount of software will eradicate the crashes due to RAM faults. If you have 32GB or 64GB of RAM these should appear not too rarely, provided you actually use that RAM. Standard desktop CPUs also have surprisingly high error rate, but it's hard to find good figures. I've tried to find some, but apparently Intel & Co. hold them under wraps nowadays.