IIUC, conventional ECC RAM requires support from both the motherboard and the CPU. This support is not present in current coreboot-compatible X-series ThinkPads (e.g. X60, X200, X201, X220, X230).
There was a discussion on the coreboot mailing list a couple of months ago about RAM modules from "I'M Intelligent Memory". That discussion focused on the fact that they are 16GB in size. https://mail.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2017-February/083330.html
Potentially more interesting, though, is that at least some modules from that company offer *integrated ECC*, which provides ECC in RAM without requiring support from either the CPU or the motherboard:
http://www.electronicsbus.com/new-256mb-and-512mb-sdram-x8x16x32-memories-wi...
As I understand it, none of the modules from that manufacturer are currently able to work in coreboot-compatible X-series ThinkPads, but this did get me wondering:
- Are there any other manufacturers offering RAM modules with integrated ECC that *are* compatible with those ThinkPads?
- Is there any other way to achieve ECC in coreboot-compatible X-series ThinkPads? (E.g. use I'M Intelligent Memory 16GB ECC RAM sticks but only address the first 8GB of each one?)
This is a shot in the dark, I know, but it seemed worth asking :)
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Sam Kuper