Re: Purposeful Parity control

[Dimiter Popoff <tgi@bulnet.bg>]

Alan,

You said:

>Consumer-grade products incorporating PCI probably do not
>need parity.  Most of us have been using PCI for years on
>our desktop systems and have never seen a single parity
>error.  ...

also:

>I can't say the PCI designers had all these applications
>in mind, but the fact that they added parity makes PCI
>more useful than it would have been otherwise. ...

These two quotes of yours actually summ my point.
PCI was made for the consumer market and they must have
known by then parity check was unnecessary (old PCs
also had memory parity check, your first quote applies to
them as well).

While I agree that there are applications which require error
detection and perhaps correction, I would seriously question
the usefulness of a "reliable" system which relies on
parity detection... Parity covers so narrow a range of error
frequencies that it is practically as good as no error detection
at all. 

Regards,

Dimiter

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dimiter Popoff
Transgalactic Instruments, Gourko Str. 25 b, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
http://transgalactic.freeyellow.com
Email: tgi@bulnet.bg, tgi_earth@yahoo.com
Phone: 00359/2/9923340, 00359/2/9805997, Fax: 00359/2/9540384