[Info-vax] On the topic of Open Compute Designs Possibly Suitable for OpenVMS x86-64

[Bob Gezelter]

A followup.

The descriptions of the OpenCompute project servers (http://www.opencompute.org/projects/server/) include at least some support for ECC DIMMs (e.g., the Intel regular server board supports both non-ECC and ECC DIMMs.

With respect to DDR3, there remains the recently disclosed flaw with regards to targeted intensive memory operations leading to a bit flip (http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/28.55.html#subj14). This may have less relevance when using ECC, but the physics of the attack are troubling. The Ars Technica article referenced by the RISKS posting does contain pointers to more technical descriptions.

Obviously, support for OpenCompute designs would make OpenVMS more compatible with the large scale corporate and data center facilities envisioned by OpenCompute (particularly looking at the scale of the sponsoring organizations).

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com