3 ms·
There's far more to reliability than ECC. What if a processor/CPU goes bad in an x86 server while running? You have to take the server down, replace it, and bri
by neverartful 4y ago
There's far more to reliability than ECC. What if a processor/CPU goes bad in an x86 server while running? You have to take the server down, replace it, and bring it back up. IBM mainframes allow for processor replacements while it's running. I think it's the same with memory. IIRC, in the mainframe world IBM has processor and RAM packaged together as a 'book' and it may be the book that can be hot swapped. Hopefully someone more knowledgable can clarify.
- rbanffy 4y agoA mainframe reminds me more of a cluster of specialised machines networked over ridiculously fast interconnects and purpose-specific networks that host those specialised machines. Some functionality of those specialised machines is exposed to user programs that can delegate some processing to these smart peripherals, offloading things like allocating blocks in the filesystem and letting the boxes that run your used code focus on running it without ever being disturbed with servicing network or disk interrupts.