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Why can't we use "Flash Drives" for adding increased Virtual Memory

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Why hasn't it been possible to use "Flash Drives" (and other RAMM like those) in-parallel, on our computers to increase useable RAM? Those little things are quite inexpensive, by comparison to buying "traditional" RAM Modules.

I can imagine having MULTIPLE SLOTS (the same kind of small slots, or "slits," that my cellphone has) on the front of my computer case, so that I could then increase the RAM (even if it's temporary "virtual" RAM), without having to install RAM Modules into my motherboard. Most MB's don't even allow adding more Modules than just a few, and even then, it's confusing to find and configure the "right type" of RAM. It's a major headache, filled with potential perils!

If those little "Flash Drive" things increase the storage capabilities of my cell-phone and/or digital camera, then why can't they be used on my computer to increase its RAM?

Here's a quote from this forum's FAQ's: (it's ITEM 14, in the 1st FAQ on the list, about Understanding Memory):

Quote:
14. VIRTUAL MEMORY
__________________________________________________

Virtual memory is required by nearly all operating systems as a way of providing seemingly unlimited memory for computer applications and programs. It's called "virtual", because the memory is borrowed from the computers hard drive data storage.
I underlined the key point of my interest; why does it HAVE TO BE THE (slower) HARD DISK DRIVE? Is it collusion by RAM-makers, or Intel, Microsoft, etc., to force everybody to spend more-and-more money for continual hardware upgrades?

I don't understand why technology hasn't progressed more than it has over the last 30 or more years.

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Because your cell phone and\or digital camera are using them as storage not RAM and the transfer speeds on them would cause your entire system to come to a crawl much like using the swap file on your HDD does when you run out of physical memory.

Also modern HDDs are much faster then the USB thumb drives.

Timop said:
You can, Its called "Ready boost".

But the Bandwidth of USB 2.0 is only 480Mbits and Flash drives tend to be even slower than that.


I didn't say "USB". There can, or should be, other ways to access and utilize various RAM SOURCES. That's my main point. I suppose I didn't say it clearly enough.
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Kreelor said:
I didn't say "USB". There can, or should be, other ways to access and utilize various RAM SOURCES. That's my main point. I suppose I didn't say it clearly enough.

SATA?

The fact is, Flash drives are so cheap because they are even much slower than Hard-drives, like JD fan said.
You could get faster ones though, google "SSDs", but that defeat the whole purpose.

Timop said:
So you want flash memory chips plugged into a RAM slot?
Isnt that what RAM is?


No. I was merely thinking that those flash memory chips "could act like" they were plugged into a RAM slot. But, they'd actually be plugged into the motherboard circuitry itself via little "slots", similar to USB slots.

I guess I'm just complaining that computer scientists, engineers, and programmers haven't yet found an affordable way to allow PC's to have use of "unlimited extendable" RAM.

Unless I'm wrong, a simple analogy would be like SCSI or RAID hard disk drives; a user can "piggy-back" them, to increase the total amount available for use.

All of you know MUCH more than I do about the current "state-of-the-art" technologies. I'm just dreaming outloud, and I'm wondering why it is so darned hard to get enough RAM on today's computers (affordably). It is just one of the many bottlenecks that keep forums like this one FILLED with thousands of questions about RAM.

Maybe I should just close this topic?

Thank you, and everyone else for your replies!

Kreelor said:
No. I was merely thinking that those flash memory chips "could act like" they were plugged into a RAM slot. But, they'd actually be plugged into the motherboard circuitry itself via little "slots", similar to USB slots.

I guess I'm just complaining that computer scientists, engineers, and programmers haven't yet found an affordable way to allow PC's to have use of "unlimited extendable" RAM.

Unless I'm wrong, a simple analogy would be like SCSI or RAID hard disk drives; a user can "piggy-back" them, to increase the total amount available for use.

All of you know MUCH more than I do about the current "state-of-the-art" technologies. I'm just dreaming outloud, and I'm wondering why it is so darned hard to get enough RAM on today's computers (affordably). It is just one of the many bottlenecks that keep forums like this one FILLED with thousands of questions about RAM.

Maybe I should just close this topic?

Thank you, and everyone else for your replies!


$100 on 4GB of quality DDR3 will be enough for 90% of people today. Eventhough RAM prices now is higher than it was,its still no where close to expensive.

The fact is most PC programs cant even utilize 8GB of RAM is some thing to be noted.

Timop said:
$100 on 4GB of quality DDR3 will be enough for 90% of people today. Eventhough RAM prices now is higher than it was,its still no where close to expensive.

The fact is most PC programs cant even utilize 8GB of RAM is some thing to be noted.


About your last comment...

Is that because the program (or, game) wasn't 'programmed' properly to use it, or is it because the Operating System wasn't programmed correctly to allow full usage of RAM? I read quite often, especially about high-end gaming, that "more RAM is better." I spent years using AutoCad, and it also benefitted by "more RAM." I really doubt if the Pentagon uses Windows 7 and "up to 64 GB's RAM" (as Microsoft claims its OS can use) on its super-computers! The technology they probably use hasn't trickled down to us mere mortals. That's my complaint. Hell, we can't even get a fully de-bugged OS on an EPROM cartridge to plug into our systems, for "instant" booting!

Okay. I'm done with this question. Thank you again for replying.

JDFan said:
Because your cell phone and\or digital camera are using them as storage not RAM and the transfer speeds on them would cause your entire system to come to a crawl much like using the swap file on your HDD does when you run out of physical memory.

Also modern HDDs are much faster then the USB thumb drives.


It was my understanding that they ARE RAM, since there is no spinning "hard disk" platter inside that little package. I know very little about it. Thanks for your reply.
Memory Expert

Kreelor said:
I guess I'm just complaining that computer scientists, engineers, and programmers haven't yet found an affordable way to allow PC's to have use of "unlimited extendable" RAM.
They have. Its called RAM. Alternatively, hard drives are much faster and MUCH cheaper than consumer flash memory per GB.

Using commodity flash memory for a pagefile or to expand virtual memory is just plain dumb. One of the requirements of USEFUL virtual memory, is that it at least offer somewhat decent performance. Putting a super slow storage media in the mix that is WORSE than commodity hard drives does not offer any advantage and would actually slow performance down.

http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/gigabyte/

http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/acard/

But, neither of these solutions uses a 6G interface.


Also, the SATA/6G standard needs to be improved
by eliminating the 10/8 protocol, and by using
far fewer ECC bits on a single 4K "jumbo frame":

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...


At present, there is one start bit and one stop bit
for every 8-bit byte, hence the 20% extra data overhead
during transmission.

Hard disk driver manufacturers like Western Digital
are now migrating to a 4K sector instead of 512 bytes,
so it only makes sense to extend this "jumbo frame"
to the transmission protocol too.

Google "Western Digital" +"advanced format"

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=815

Advanced Format Technology -- Technology being adopted by WD and
other drive manufacturers to increase media format efficiencies,
thus enabling larger drive capacities. (PVT models only) [end quote]


BEST WAY, for now, is to bulk up on RAM and
utilize a ramdisk, using proven software like
SuperSpeed's RamDisk Plus:

http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php

http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/superspeed/RamDiskPlu...


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