Shipments of uVAX II resume after NEC component replaced

[Phil Ngai]

(From 9/23/85 Electronics)

	"The bug that forced DEC to suspend shipments of Unix equipped
versions of its uVAX II last June has been traced to a component
failure--not the Unix operating system, as had been previously
reported. DEC says it has replaced the part and resumed shipments of
the Microvax. DEC would not disclose which component failed or name
the supplier; but according to industry sources, the culprit was a
256K DRAM from NEC.
	The failure reportedly occurs after the DRAM goes 60 seconds
without being written to. The next write then makes a change in the
column adjacent to the one being written in. The cause of the problem
is still unknown.
	DEC's Ultrix was at first thought to be at fault because the
failure occurred when the uVAX was running under that operating
system, but did not occur under the VMS operating system. However, VMS
in effect masked the error because it regularly writes to all memory
chips as part of normal operation.
	A source within DEC said 30 senior engineers were assigned to
work on the problem--from manufacturing, both Ultrix and VMS teams,
Microvax system engineering, and memory engineering. Early this month,
the source said, the failure was duplicated on Siemens test equipment,
and the results communicated to other projects within DEC. "
-- 
 God made atheists too.

 Phil Ngai (408) 749-5720
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