5.3-BETA7 install cd: kernel trap 12 with interrupts disabled (fwd)

[Garance A Drosihn]

At 3:17 PM -0400 10/15/04, Garance A Drosihn wrote:
>At 11:41 AM -0600 10/15/04, Robert Gray wrote:
>
>>I'm a firm believer that we should encourage our users to
>>buy ECC systems - motherboards that support ECC, and the
>>more expensive SIMMs/DIMMs that have redundant bits.
>>
>>I'd rather spend a few more dollars to *know* when memory is
>>the problem during normal operations instead of trying to
>>locate the source of the problem after something bad happens.
>
>While I do agree with that, ...

Let me say that a bit more emphatically.  I do agree that ECC
memory is worth the extra money, and that it would be good to
document that somewhere for people who are looking to buy new
hardware for FreeBSD.  It would make sense to have that in the
FreeBSD handbook, perhaps in the section on "supported hardware".
Maybe some page on "general advice for buying hardware".  I am
not sure what the best place would be for it.  I'm a systems
programmer, not a writer  :-)

Separate from that, I also think it would be very useful to have
some sort of memory tester available from the boot-loader, at
least on the installation CD's.

-- 
Garance Alistair Drosehn            =   gad at gilead.netel.rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer           or  gad at freebsd.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    or  drosih at rpi.edu