Scott7477's Journal: IBM tests prototype system by blasting it with proton beam

In an article at news.com titled IBM's Power6: Bigger iron, lower power, the author notes at the end of the article that "To simulate adverse conditions, IBM runs Power6 systems at the wrong end of a proton beam. The testing showed that a system is able to recover from about 3,400 random software errors before one slips through and causes undetected data corruption..."

The reason for this: "As circuitry grows smaller, it becomes more susceptible to errors because of charged particles caused by cosmic rays or other sources. Power6 is built using a manufacturing process with 65-nanometer elements compared with 90 nanometers for Power5+."

Now, sysadmins have a new fall-back excuse when their systems crash; "It's cosmic rays, dude! We need to put our servers in a room with walls that have a lead lining."