[Beowulf] ECC support on motherboards?

[Mark Hahn]

>> In the amd case all socket F cpu's support ecc.
>
> Does support for ECC on AMD 64 bit processors bypass BIOS support, for

there _is_ no memory without bios support - it's pretty interesting to 
read the AMD bios writer's guide, and see how the bios has to bootstrap:
detecting kinds of memory, measuring or figuring out memory timing,
programming the chipset (delays, frequencies, widths, interleaving).
I haven't tried to look at Intel northbridge registers for a few years.

> the most part? Let me rephrase: if I install an Opteron in AM2 form
> factor along with ECC ram on a consumer motherboard, will a Bluesmoke

definitely depends on whether the bios sets up ecc.

> kernel still trap on a memory error even if the BIOS does not
> specifically support ECC?

nope.  though it would probably be possible for kernel code to twiddle
the ecc support directly.  afaik, the relevant northbridge registers 
remain accessible after boot proper...

regards, mark hahn.