How Alpha Particles Can Break Computer Chips

Veritasium
Contributed By
Veritasium
Resource Type
Instructional Resource
Keywords
veritasium science physics bit bit flip cosmic ray bit flip cosmic ray error correction computers engineering computer intel microchip radioactive alpha alpha particle radiation microchips nuclear theoretical physics computer science stem technology energy
Subjects
Science
Related Resources

How Alpha Particles Can Break Computer Chips

In the 1970s, Intel couldn't work out what was damaging the DRAM on their microchips.

The cause turned out to be the ceramic that the chip was encased in. It was secretly flipping 1s to 0s.

But how?
Publisher
Veritasium

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