ECC Scrubing?

[Cygnus]

Hey folks, Im setting up an MP server on a Tyan board with a Phoenix BIOS. 4 80GB drives using Raid 0 and 1 with 1GB of ECC DDR memory.

Now to the question...

In the CMOS setup I found a setting for the memory called ECC scrubing and I cant identify its purpose. Any of you know what "scrubing" is or if I should use it?

[ilovetheusers]

[quote]Originally posted by Cygnus:
<strong>Hey folks, Im setting up an MP server on a Tyan board with a Phoenix BIOS. 4 80GB drives using Raid 0 and 1 with 1GB of ECC DDR memory.

Now to the question...

In the CMOS setup I found a setting for the memory called ECC scrubing and I cant identify its purpose. Any of you know what "scrubing" is or if I should use it?</strong><hr></blockquote>

I am not being a smarta$$. Did you read the manual for your board? Often the mobo book will give you info on what you seek for each and every setting. Let us know what the book says because, honestly I don't know what that is and I'm interested now.

[NeuromancerIV]

Thus SPAKE my Prosignia manual.....

The more commonly accepted definition for "memory scrubbing" comes from mainframe system terminology which refers to a process that actively reads memory during idle periods to search for and correct errors in memory. Therefore, the entire memory subsystem would be periodically checked and cleansed as the scrubbing process repeated itself over and over. Hewlett Packard (HP) appears to be using a less frequently used definition of memory scrubbing that is associated with ECC (error checking and correcting) memory. In this limited definition, the checking, detecting, and correcting of single bit errors in memory only occurs as the processor requests data and before the data reaches the CPU. This means that errors are corrected before they reach the processor. The form of "memory scrubbing" that HP provides is only the most basic level of fixing memory errors as they are detected by the server, as an adjunct to ECC protection. All major vendors, including Compaq do this kind of memory scrubbing.

[Damned Angel]

from what I can find on google, it seems to be just another term for error correcting.

[Cygnus]

Thanx people, I think Neuromancer cleared it up pretty well for me.

And I did read the book before posting I also found it incredibly odd that there would be no definition of one of the settings in the manual but in the case of this one there were several missing items. I have already sent an e-mail to them regarding the issue so perhaps they will correct it.

at any rate, thanx for the help all!