> It looks like Trevor gained root access to Linus!

 

Good one!

 

I looked at the thread, and it looks like people's "memory" doesn't go back far enough.  The original IBM PC (and later XT and AT), consumer computers do note, did use 9-bit bytes, with a simple parity bit for each 8-bit byte.  Many PC clones, though, soon went for 8-bit RAM (no parity) to save costs.

 

ECC on a per byte basis requires 11 bits, but ECC on a much larger block basis is more efficient, with the typical later implementation being 72-bit DRAM providing ECC to 64-bit data.

 

For those who might not know, first level ECC allows single-bit-error detection and correction, and double-bit-error detection.

 

While I'm sure of the validity of this whole thread (and the claims of "why"), it was different in the beginning of the PC era (1980+), where Intel was pretty neutral and IBM applied their mainframe computing robustness principles.

 

BTW, I've always been a parity/ECC fan!  Every desktop I ever owned had this protection.  As for my current laptops ..... shame!