it might as the main component, but when you restart or powerdown the system, the data in the ram must be written to a non eraseable source, such as a hard drive or flash memory.
ram will never replace the harddrive. Harddrive will never replace the ram.
cpu's cache though might someday replace the ram, lol.
cpu's cache though might someday replace the ram, lol.
harddrives will continue to grow in size, just like everything else.
harddrive is the most practical solution in storage systems right now. Memory might someday be practical as if data sizes do not grow as capacity grows, which i highly doubt.
harddrive is the most practical solution in storage systems right now. Memory might someday be practical as if data sizes do not grow as capacity grows, which i highly doubt.
hard drive is a permanent data store device, RAM is not. But on the other hand it can happen(nothing is impossible)
Googer
Lifer
- Nov 11, 2004
- 12,576
- 7
- 81
Yes, you can use it for a page file and for your favorite game, however it does need to be pluged in whlie the computer is turned off in order to keep the data saved in the memory. So you will also need to buy a nice big UPS to keep that thing going while the power is out or the voltage sags for a second.
In my opinion Hyper Drive is a better (almost as fast) alternative, because you can attach a Hard Drive(HDD) to it so when the power goes out, the HyperDrive dumps all the data on to the HDD attached to It.
http://www.hyperosforum.co.uk/hosf/viewtopic.php?t=672
Jeff7181
Lifer
- Aug 21, 2002
- 18,368
- 11
- 81
I don't think magnetic storage is going anywhere anytime soon. I think we'll see much larger data densities, possibly 10,000-15,000 RPM becoming standard, maybe larger caches (like 32-64 MB) to help hide latency, improvements to NCQ... all before we see holographic or solid state mass storage.
What I keep wondering is if we'll ever see hard drives with dual heads positioned 180 degrees from eachother on the platters. It would be kinda like RAID 0 in a single drive. Yes it would increase the number of moving parts, but not as much as an actual RAID 0 array. And it would nearly halve access times and double transfer rates almost instantly.
What I keep wondering is if we'll ever see hard drives with dual heads positioned 180 degrees from eachother on the platters. It would be kinda like RAID 0 in a single drive. Yes it would increase the number of moving parts, but not as much as an actual RAID 0 array. And it would nearly halve access times and double transfer rates almost instantly.
Googer
Lifer
- Nov 11, 2004
- 12,576
- 7
- 81
I have also been thinking the same thing, but I know it has already been done. A Japaneese company has already devloped a HDD with A read/write head and one read head, the purpose was for Internet Security and not performance since only the read head was made avalable to Internet applicatons. There was an Article in CPU magazene on it 2 years ago, the company was one most of us have not heard of and I cannot remember the name; but if some one still has the issue or can find it on the web please let us know.
Thanks, that looks even better.
http://www.hyperos2002.com/07042003/products.htm#hyperosHDIIproduct
Still $700 without any memory.. But it is a cool device. Here's a quote from the website:
"XP installs on a HyperDrive III in around 4 minutes, rather than the 40 minutes that it takes to install on a Hard Disk."
I'd guess the next step (HyperDrive IV?) would be DDR memory connecting through Serial ATA for even faster speeds.
Googer
Lifer
- Nov 11, 2004
- 12,576
- 7
- 81
I gave out the forum address instead of the Corporate Site, because if you had any questions that would be the place to go and find out all you need to know.
I believe the Hyperdrive comes with RAM, but the Cenetek Rocket Drive Does not For $700.
The (SSD) Drive will only be as fast as the interface that it is connected to. So serial ATA would make a nice differance in performance, but DDR would not matter that much. PC100 or 133 Should Be fast and enough.
What about bit flipping in the ram though? Wouldn't data corruption eventually be a problem for a 24/7 system?
I'm guessing that a $700 device made up of a PIC microcontroller, memory controller, and glue in-between is probably cheap enough to manufacture that the company can integrate ECC support. Might be wrong though...
Potentially so. Current RAM does undergo random corruption with time due to 'soft errors'- a typical estimate is approximately one bit corruption per GB per year. So, if you have 16 GB of RAM, you could expect approx one corruption event every month or so. This is due to natural background radiation and cannot be prevented or shielded.
You can also get corruption due to minor manufacturing defects in the RAM, which causes occasional bits to lose their state with time. These RAMs will usually pass all diagnostic tests, but occasionally will cause corruption. This is probably less common than true soft errors.
ECC is a way of preventing these corruptions from causing problems. As these 'soft errors' only affect 1 individual bit, they can be detected and corrected, so no data is lost.
Interestingly, the Hyperdrive doesn't mention anything about ECC. In fact, they don't really provide any explanation of the technologies used. ECC is cheap, so it should support it, but as this seems to be a budget device, it might not. They mention that the board accepts ECC RAM, but says nothing about using the ECC function.
Of concern is that there are a number of design choices that I would consider as flaws. E.g. they have a HDD for backup - the backup sequence is activated in the event of a power failure - with the RAM supported by battery for that time. It doesn't appear that the battery power is transferrable to the drive either. A better design would be for the RAM to act as a cache for the HDD, the data being stored on the HDD as soon as possible. This makes the consequences of premature battery run-down less serious. It could also help mitigate some catastrophic RAM failures.
There is no mention of background memory scanning, or monitoring software. With a piece of equipment this expensive, I'd like to have some way of telling that it's fully healthy and ready for work. E.g. Some high end server OSs actually run a memtest type program in the background continually, logging statistics on ECC corrected errors etc. They will actually warn you if a DIMM is getting excessive 'soft errors' or might have forgetful bits - allowing you to arrange replacement even before any data loss occurs.
Soft errors in RAM can be corrected/detected by ECC. A more complex version of ECC could easily be designed which could correct more than single-bit errors. You think your hard drive and CD drive doesn't generate errors consistently? There is a lot of ECC built into optical drives; for every ~2000 bytes (one sector) of data, you've got ~1000 bytes of ECC, in three layered schemes. HDDs also use ECC.
The cost of current transistor RAM tech is always going to be much more than the costs of similar capacity magnetic storage. Additionally, even static RAM (SRAM) requires power to retain data; nobody will ever rely on something which requires consistent power for data storage. Neither RAM nor magnetic storage will ever replace the other. More likely, a single higher-speed, higher-capacity technology will eventually replace both.
Optical holographic storage has the capacity for high-speed data transfer, but seek times will not be much better than with current hard drives, since it will again depend on the mechanical motion of the lasers and disks.
By the way, "CMOS" settings are stored in (who would've guessed?) CMOS transistors, just like normal data in main memory ("RAM"). This CMOS requires consistent power to consistently refresh itself, hence the motherboard battery. The common term "NVRAM" (non-volatile RAM) for CMOS is a misnomer.
The point is, we're looking for a new idea for high-speed access, high-speed transfer, high-capacity storage mediums that aren't prohibitively expensive. I'm sure someone will think of something!
The cost of current transistor RAM tech is always going to be much more than the costs of similar capacity magnetic storage. Additionally, even static RAM (SRAM) requires power to retain data; nobody will ever rely on something which requires consistent power for data storage. Neither RAM nor magnetic storage will ever replace the other. More likely, a single higher-speed, higher-capacity technology will eventually replace both.
Optical holographic storage has the capacity for high-speed data transfer, but seek times will not be much better than with current hard drives, since it will again depend on the mechanical motion of the lasers and disks.
By the way, "CMOS" settings are stored in (who would've guessed?) CMOS transistors, just like normal data in main memory ("RAM"). This CMOS requires consistent power to consistently refresh itself, hence the motherboard battery. The common term "NVRAM" (non-volatile RAM) for CMOS is a misnomer.
The point is, we're looking for a new idea for high-speed access, high-speed transfer, high-capacity storage mediums that aren't prohibitively expensive. I'm sure someone will think of something!
That HyperDriveIII is looking awfully tempting. 
Now that I'm not spending money on Distributed Computing projects, something like this is a real possibility for me.
Now that I'm not spending money on Distributed Computing projects, something like this is a real possibility for me.
RadiclDreamer
Diamond Member
- Aug 8, 2004
- 8,622
- 40
- 91
No, you dont change settings in the bios by going into it, you change the settings in the CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)
When you change settings and then save, it saves a copy of the bios with said settings to the cmos which is volitile and backed up by usually a CR2032 battery
Apparently the hyperdrive has been reduced to 6GB max of 1GB modules, will be released in May, and requires ECC memory so I assume it would do error correction. And the company is hoping to get bought out by one of the large hard drive companies. A bit too expensive for me, and I wish they had made it Serial ATA, but it is a really cool invention. Check this forum for updates http://www.hyperosforum.co.uk/
Thanks for posting that link ThePanda; topping out at just six gig of ram is quite a drastic cut.. I have to agree with the others that I'm better off just using a regular ram disk for now. Bummer.
Yes, IBM are working on holographic storage amongst other things.
The latest storage medium being researched is tomato soup ... yeah !
The latest storage medium being researched is tomato soup ... yeah !
No. The BIOS is a 2Mbit of 4Mbit memory chip (Electrically Programable ROM, or EPROM, or EEPROM, Electrically Erasable and Programable Read Only Memory). However, all its "data" is stored in a separate memory - that CMOS memory (a RAM memory, read-write), that is backup powered from the battery. You can change anything in BIOS, the changes in fact go to that small RAM memory. The BIOS is written with different programs (like AWDFLASH)
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 21K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter