Jan 05, 2021 07:00:00

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, severely criticized Intel because 'it's killing ECC memory.'

by

renatomitra

Linux developer Linus Torvalds has harshly criticized Intel's attitude towards ECC, saying 'Intel is dying ECC ' in the tech community's ' Real World Tech .'

Real World Technologies --Forums --Thread: Ryzen 9 5000 series processor
https://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=198497&curpostid=198647

Linus Torvalds On The Importance Of ECC RAM, Calls Out Intel's 'Bad Policies' Over ECC --Phoronix

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linus-Torvalds-ECC

For DRAM used in computers, 1-bit values may be inverted due to electromagnetic influences. ECC memory is memory with the added function of correcting such inversion. In order to use the ECC function, not only the memory but also the CPU and motherboard must support ECC, but Intel has limited ECC support to server models such as the Xeon series, and is for the general public. The current situation is that the model does not provide ECC functions. ECC is not supported for the high-end model 'Core i7-10700K' for the general public.

Intel® Core ™ i7-10700K Processor (16M Cache, Up to 5.10GHz) Product Specifications
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/jp/ja/ark/products/199335/intel-core-i7-10700k-processor-16m-cache-up-to-5-10-ghz.html

Mr. Torvalds said that ECC is 'very important' and that Intel's attitude toward ECC is 'Intel is dying the entire ECC market by performing extremely bad market segmentation.' The discussion about ECC was always just like garbage. ' Intel, which has dominated the CPU market for a long time, has severely criticized the fact that it has limited ECC-compatible models under the policy that 'consumers do not need ECC'.

'I've been plagued with strange kernel errors that I can't explain for decades, but they're probably due to memory errors,' Torvalds speculates, and continues to encounter errors that could have been avoided with ECC. He said he was angry at what he was doing. From my own experience, I dismiss the opinion that 'modern memory is so reliable that ECC is not necessary.'

For Intel, which is trying to differentiate products by ECC, AMD is unofficially offering ECC not only for the server model

Ryzen Threadripper but also for the general Ryzen 5000 series. In Linux 5.10, it seems that ECC is actually working on the Ryzen 5000 series. Torvalds says he is grateful to AMD for triggering a recovery in the ECC market.

'In the past, ECC was easy to use, but it was crushed by Intel's terrible policy. Don't listen to the opinion that more reliable DRAM makes ECC unnecessary. Please, 'said Torvalds. In May 2019, Mr. Torvalds migrated the CPU of his main machine to AMD.

Linux creator Linus Torvalds changes CPU of main machine from Intel to AMD for the first time in 15 years --GIGAZINE