memory uses 80 bits of width in total, split between two 40-bit (32 data, 8 checking) channels. ECC is also used with smaller and larger sizes.

An ECC-capable memory controller uses the additional bits to store the SECDED code; the memory is only responsible for holding the extra bits. Since the late 1990s, the memory controller also communicates to the BIOS and maintains a count of errors detected and corrected, in part to help identify failing memory modules before the problem becomes catastrophic. Reading