Solid-State HD

[Guest]

I am no engineer myself, so perhaps I too am oversimplifying a complex idea. Why can’t a simple circuit board be made to hold 8, 16 or even 32 sticks of SDRAM chips to be used as a Solid-State Hard Drive? I have read the other postings and visited the web sites of those EXPENSIVE versions of Solid-State Hard Drives but what is so difficult about offering an unpopulated PCI card hard drive? Is the engineering of a simple card and software combo really that difficult and expensive? I just want to see an unpopulated PCI card be made available for $100 or so that I can add PC133 RAM to, and still use my current hard drive as backup. Does such a product exist at a reasonable price and if not … why not?

 

[FatBurger]

The problem is that RAM is volatile, so you lose all the information stored on it when your computer is rebooted or turned off. That said, there's a link on how to set it up correctly so that won't happen somewhere in this forum.

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Don't step in the sarcasm!

 

[Cstew77]

Here's an engineering answer for you. PC circuits are based on bi-stable devices - 1's and 0's which correspond to either the + or - electrical charge or the N or S polarity of a magnet. RAM is basically a bunch of really small capacitors that store an electronic charge. The reason why RAM is not solid state is because the capacitance charge dissipates after a while.

And I am an engineer.

 

[kief]

Besides any technical issues think how big a card would need to be to hold 32 dimms!!! There would also be a (lack of) demand issue with the device as most people would not pay $100 + thousands for RAM....

Jesus saves, but Mario scores!!!

 

[Mnx4]

Yeah but what about MRam? Doesn't it retain the information on it even after you shut off the computer?

Putting the laughter back in to Slaughter.

 

[HonestJhon]

well, flash memory cards do the same thing...but i dont know how fast they can get...because it is like flashing your bios over and over.
it would be cool however to have a solid state hard drive...
but right now, memory is kinda expensive...so i dont think they will be able to do this now, since it will cost WAYY more than a hard drive...and hard drives arent THAT unreliable....sure, they have problems, but so does everything else! monitors die, keyboards die, cars die...


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your replies but I think the point is being missed ... yes RAM is volatile and ill loose its data when the power goes off ... yes RAM prices are going back up ... and yes 32 slots is going to be large but the 2 key features that makes the idea appealing is FLEXABILITY and SPEED. Would it not be great to be able to have a PCI Solid-State Hard Drive that you can add more memory as you are able to afford them? There is no question that a Solid-State Hard Drive is going to be faster.

It is in our darkest hour that the light shines the brightest in guiding us home.

 

[HonestJhon]

yeah, it would be nice...
but why the pci slot?
couldnt it be hooked up to the IDE controller port...
and if i am not wrong, it could actually fill the ata-133 bandwidth.
imagine that! and it wouldnt take up a pci slot. and would leave you more options for adding ram...like it could be mounted vertically, so that it would be able to be as tall as the case.
imagnie how many ram slots you could fit on that!
and i think that if you added a battery, or some form of powersupply to the ram, it would keep the data...wouldnt it?


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[FatBurger]

I fail to see the use of a hard drive that gets erased every time you reboot. Perhaps for use as a swap file, but buying more RAM would be more effective and cheaper.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>
Don't step in the sarcasm!

 

[HonestJhon]

if it has a battery to back it up...it could retain the data.


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[FatBurger]

Of course, but the way he said it:

yes RAM is volatile and ill loose its data when the power goes off ... yes RAM prices are going back up ... and yes 32 slots is going to be large but the 2 key features that makes the idea appealing is FLEXABILITY and SPEED

Makes me think that he's not talking about something like that.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>
Don't step in the sarcasm!

 

[HonestJhon]

hmm..im lost then!

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-