The truth behind computer and mobile phone freezing: cosmic ray interference

Why do our computers and mobile phones freeze during normal use? Foreign media PCWorld has brought some mind-blowing reasons.

The report mentioned that the real culprit for computer crashes or mobile phone freezes may be cosmic rays, or the charged particles they generate, which interfere with the normal operation of microelectronic circuits in personal electronic devices. This phenomenon is called single-particle upset effect.

When a single-event upset occurs, a charged particle changes a bit of data stored in a chip's memory, with consequences ranging from a change of just one pixel in a photograph to a major one that can bring down a jetliner.

This effect has attracted the attention of many manufacturers. For example, in 2008, Fujitsu engineers climbed a volcano in Hawaii to better understand the mechanism by which cosmic rays cause computer errors.

The Radiation Effects Research Group at Vanderbilt University, which specializes in studying the interference of radiation on electronic systems, said that the single-particle upset effect is definitely a big problem, but it is not well known to the public. As the number of transistors in new electronic systems increases, the probability of equipment failure due to the single-particle upset effect will also increase greatly.

In order to reduce the probability of single-particle upset effects, NASA has added redundancy to its own spacecraft computer systems.

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