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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (21465)	1/20/2002 2:25:42 AM
From: Craig Freeman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Uncle Frank, re: "rads" and "flash". If you want to delve into the topic deeply, search out www.ibm.com for words like "neutrons", "memory", "parity", and "ECC". Several years back IBM published a white paper about how free neutrons from ordinary concrete used to build high-rise office structures was sufficiently radioactive as to cause memory failures in the average PC more than once per year. They went on to describe the need for error-correcting memory systems in PCs (a fact that Intel has chosen to ignore except in "file servers".) Because flash memory structures are larger than those of typical memory systems in PCs, you might be mislead. Today's flash memory cells are smaller and even more vulnerable to damage by free neutrons than the ones described in IBM article. Since X-rays produce loads of locallized free neutrons, it isn't hard to understand the problem. Flash memory gates are more vulnerable than metal-shielded, metal-based hard drives. But both are vulnerable. I would have more to say but I doubt if there are many people here with advanced degrees in particle physics and I spent most of my college days in the "Finance" department. Happy searching! Craig