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On 8/03/2012 5:03 PM, Scott Howard wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:CACnPsNVXCRBP2_rgC-0-Cpam0PXpqxmRvXp2RmYpdPLcDyB=9g@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 9:47 PM, Peter Childs <span
dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:PChilds@internode.com.au">PChilds@internode.com.au</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<quote><br>
> As with all computer and networking devices, the AS5400
is susceptible to<br>
> the rare occurrence of parity errors in processor memory.
Parity errors may<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
These excuses may seem far-fetched, and I used to get a lot of
unbelieving looks when I gave this excuse when I was an
engineer at Sun - but the simple fact is that it IS true.<br>
<br>
And by true, what I mean is that cosmic rays can and do cause
bits to flip, especially in the type of memory used in CPU
caches. What may or may not be true is if any specific
occurrence was due to cosmic rays - because obviously there's
no way to prove that one way or another!<br>
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</blockquote>
<br>
As someone who has used and built cosmic-ray and gamma-ray
telescopes in the past, I can vouch for this. <br>
<br>
Cosmic-ray hits show up well in <a
href="http://www.astronomy.com/sitefiles/utilities/image.aspx?item=%7B2771D938-60A1-4CD7-BA69-A90A23D62884%7D&mw=900&mh=650">long
time exposures of CCD chips</a> - which is just an array of
silicon memory gates at the end of the day.<br>
<br>
And if your router is in the cone of a cosmic ray air-shower
cascade of subatomic particles.....http://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~drescher/CASSIM/mFe2.mpg<br>
:-)<br>
<br>
P.<br>
<br>
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