RAIM is similar in concept to a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), which protects against the failure of a disk drive, but in the case of memory it supports several DRAM device chipkills and entire memory channel failures.
On July 22, 2010, IBM introduced the first high end computer server featuring RAIM, the zEnterprise 196.
The formal announcement letter offered some additional information regarding the implementation: ... IBM's most robust error correction to date can be found in the memory subsystem.
DIMM level failures, including components such as the controller application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), the power regulators, the clocks, and the board, can be corrected.
Together these improvements are designed to deliver System z's most resilient memory subsystem to date.