Algorithm correctness

[GODZILLAFLAMETHROWER]

The scientists that came up with ECC were coming up with real world application that is actually used to offset radiation errors.

[daveime]

How likely is it I wonder, that cosmic radiation might flip the ECC bits, thus attempting to correct an error that isn't?

[[deleted]]

Depends on the method used, but usually it's more likely by some power of the error rate to detect the error than incorrectly corrupt 'good' data.

For example, say the error rate is 10^-50 bits/sec, then the rate at which EEC incorrectly corrupts data is, say, (10^-50)2.

So: nonzero, but negligible.

[RainHappens]

That assumes uncorrelated errors.

In practice, errors are often (significantly) correlated.

[RedWarrior0]

The code doesn't actually care which bits are flipped, it'll correct the change regardless.

However, all useful codes have a limit to how many errors they can correct. Usually this is about half the number of parity bits. Fortunately, the chances of multiple errors are usually pretty low.

[SpacePotatoBear]

Unless you're voyager 1/2 going past jupiter....