"Thus, determining the correct rate
at which to refresh DRAM cells has become more difficult, as also
indicated by industry [45]. This is due to two major phenomena, both
of which get worse (i.e., become more prominent) with technology
scaling. First, Data Pattern Dependence (DPD): the retention time of a DRAM cell is heavily dependent on the data pattern stored in itself and in the neighboring cells [69]. " - worth reading: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.00626.pdf
@HalvarFlake this is beautiful: basically non-deterministic RAM. It means that all the work Sun Microsystems had done on self-healing suddenly becomes of great relevance because you have to assume RAM is not trustworthy unless verified.
@cynicalsecurity do you have a link on that self-healing work of Sun?
@esizkur I wish I did, it dates from the 90s along with their work on asynchronous chips. Early Ultra times. I have been trying to find links in forever - I had a paper when I lived in the UK and knew well the techies from Sun UK (a famous palindrome domain under UK Grey Book addressing - @uk.sun.com). Perhaps we can ask Alec?