Memtest86

Memtest86 and Memtest86+ are memory test software programs designed to test and stress test an x86 architecture computer's random access memory (RAM) for errors. Each tries to verify that the RAM will accept and correctly retain arbitrary patterns of data written to it, that there are no errors where different bits of memory interact, and that there are no conflicts between memory addresses.

History

Memtest86 was developed by Chris Brady. After Memtest86 remained at v3.0 (2002 release) for two years, the Memtest86+ fork was created by Samuel Demeulemeester to add support for newer CPUs and chipsets. As of November 2013 the latest version of Memtest86+ is 5.01.

Memtest86 is written in C and x86 assembly. The source code is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The bootloading code was originally derived from Linux 1.2.1. Both versions now support current dual- and quad-core-CPUs and the corresponding chipsets. The latest release of Memtest86+ supports Intel-based Macintosh computers.