[driverdan]

I don't have the numbers handy but here's a basic explanation. Due to the amount of RAM we all run today the probability of having a RAM error is surprisingly high. IIRC it's at least once per year.

[vernie]

I feel like it would have to be much more frequent than that (at least monthly with perceivable consequences) to get a typical user to care.

[ascagnel_]

The Wikipedia [0] page for ECC RAM states that Cassini-Huygens spacecraft had a fairly static count of 280 errors/day.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECC_memory

[vernie]

Most desktop computers aren't in space.

[falcolas]

That same wiki article references Google's experienced numbers, with a high end of "about 5 single bit errors in 8 Gigabytes of RAM per hour"

[monocasa]

Google at the time was buying memory chips that had failed manufacturer QA, stuffing them on to DIMMs themselves, and then running whatever seemed to pass.

[ascagnel_]

That number was consistent on-the-ground pre-launch and post-launch (with the exception of a short period of higher error instances due to a solar flare).

[StillBored]

Eeek, at those rates surely there are some undetected triple flips.