Acer Altos T350 F2 Faq page 29

Altos T350 F2 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Maximum Performance
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Mirroring
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Lockstep
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Sparing
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f. Please select Sparing
NOTE. The Sparing only available with quad rank DIMM
NOTE. The Mirroring, Sparing or Lockstep option might not be available if the memory
population does not follow the guideline.
g. Please save the setting before exiting from BIOS Setup.
16. How does memory sparing work?
ANSWER: Altos T350 F2 systems implements the tracking register per rank (not per DIMM)
to maintain a history of error occurrence (Single-Bit error), and a programmable register
to hold the fail-over error threshold level. If the count of errors on any rank exceeds
that value, fail-over will commence.
Once fail-over has been initiated the memory controller (integrated in the processor) must
execute every write twice; once to the primary rank, and once to the spare rank. (This
requires that the spare rank must be least the size of the largest primary rank in use.)
The duplicate write function will have copied every data location to the spare rank. At
that point, the memory controller (integrated in the processor) can switch the spare into
primary use, and take the failing rank off-line.
Note that this entire mechanism requires no software support once it has been programmed
and enabled, until the threshold detection has been triggered to request a data copy.
Hardware will detect the threshold initiating fail-over, and escalate the occurrence of
that event as directed. Whatever software routine responds to the threshold detection will
select a victim rank and initiate the memory copy. Hardware will automatically isolate
the "failed" rank once the copy has completed. The data copy is accomplished by address
aliasing within the memory control interface, thus it does not require reprogramming of
the DRAM row boundary (DRB) registers, nor does it require notification to the operating
system that anything has occurred in memory.
17. Is there any guideline about the memory DIMM population for memory sparing?
ANSWER: Please refer to Altos T350 F2 Product Spec.
18. Does Altos T350 F2 support memory mirroring for 6 DIMMs?
ANSWER: Yes, Altos T350 F2 can supports memory mirroring for 2, 4, 6, 8 DIMMs.
19. When fail-over of memory mirroring occurred, will there be any log in SEL to indicate the
fail-over?
ANSWER: Yes, there will be a log in SEL when fail-over of memory mirroring occurred.
20. Can Smart Server Manager monitor the status of memory sparing/mirroring?
ANSWER: No, Smart Server Manager cannot monitor the status of memory sparing/mirroring
on Altos T350 F2. Current hardware implementation of Altos T350 F2 doesn't support the
status monitoring of memory sparing/mirroring.
21. Does Altos T350 F2 support hot-plug memory?
ANSWER: No.
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