Ram drive?

[NuebieN]

I was reading an article on toms hardware about the new wd hard drive with 8mb cache. I remembered someone talking to me about a ram drive. This is where someone used a huge amount of ram on there system and used software to make most of the ram a drive. This allowed them to run there os from there memory. Has anyone here ever done that?

 

[Tecumseh]

IF you mean boot from a RAMDRIVE, not too many have
done that. There are software and hardware RAMDRIVES.
Most of the classic RDs were/are SCSI drives and you
can boot those just like any drive. Newer designs use
DIMMS on a PCI card. Those are not bootable yet, but
the various mfgers are working on it.

A software RD uses system RAM and is obviously not
bootable. They have their place in embedded systems,
but for PCs running Linux or W2K or XP there is usually
very little to be gained. There are exceptions.

 

[NuebieN]

Thanx.. That scsi ram drive sounds like the ticket. I even have an old scsi card around here somewhere.

 

[Tecumseh]

It's intesting that most of the classic SCSI RAM drives
are out of production. Digital had one and there was
a Rushmore drive from Maxtor, I think. Of the ones
left like Imperial, you will hate the price.

 

[Xaero_toast]

IF you mean boot from a RAMDRIVE, not too many have
done that. There are software and hardware RAMDRIVES.
Most of the classic RDs were/are SCSI drives and you
can boot those just like any drive. Newer designs use
DIMMS on a PCI card. Those are not bootable yet, but
the various mfgers are working on it.

where can I buy one of these hardware ramdrives?

 

[Tecumseh]

where can I buy one of these hardware ramdrives?

www.cenatek.com

Or a Aussie place called platypus....

 

[David]

Ramdisks (software) are extremely useful for linux imho - I am currently working on a ramdisk based linux distro - It allows a fast, cheap and read/write filesystem.

 

[Xaero_toast]

www.cenatek.com

Or a Aussie place called platypus....

Holy Sh*t!! (Can I say Sh*t on these boards)

There proud enough of their product...
$999 for one that comes with 512mb SDRAM...geez.

When they come out with one for $100 that lets you put your own ram on it...I'll buy one...no sooner

 

[Tecumseh]

Xaero_toast, you are close to the edge, but yea. What
are they thinking? I figure they will go belly-up and
we can pick up the company for pennies on the $ in
a year or two.

 

[UnseenMenace]

have a look at http://www.hyperos2002.com/ that may be what you seek