As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Memory systems, including mirrored memory systems, often use Hamming error correction codes for the purpose of identifying errors in saved data. Although Hamming error correction codes may be effective at identifying single bit errors, Hamming error correction codes are less effective at identifying multiple bit errors. The inability of these memory systems to handle multi-bit errors may cause an error correction routine to be performed that is itself flawed but nonetheless recognized as being correct and yielding valid data. In addition, some multi-bit errors may not be recognized. As a result, the incorrect data in the code word will not be corrected and will be recognized as valid. In addition, if there is a fault in the memory system that causes can address failure resulting in one or more addresses lines being in error, the accessed data at the memory location will return a valid error correction code, but will nevertheless be wrong data.