error correcting code:    A scheme for checking the correctness of data that has been stored and retrieved, and correcting it if necessary. Abbreviated ECC. An ECC consists of a number of bits computed as a function of the data to be protected, and appended to the data. When the data and ECC are read, the function is recomputed, the result is compared to the ECC appended to the data, and correction is performed if necessary. Error correcting codes differ from cyclic redundancy checks in that the latter can detect errors, but are not generally capable of correcting them. cf. cyclic redundancy check.

See also: N-IOECC, N-IOEDC