ECC-on-SIMM test challenges

Abstract

The typical personal computer of today is used more and more to perform functions and run application programs that are critical to a business's success. One of the biggest problems that inhibits productivity in this environment Is the effect of a lock-up, crash or parity error caused by cosmic-ray radiation-induced soft errors in the DRAM chips. IBM has announced a family of plug-compatible, retrofittable SIMMs with built-in ECC to provide a solution to this problem. This paper addresses the challenges associated with the full functional test of a SIMM with on-board ECC using a very test-unfriendly industry-standard memory module interface.