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Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
Can you imagine a 1 TB DIMM? It's coming | ZDNetIn-memory computing is all the rage. But there are problems with large memory servers: DIMMs use a lot of power and board space; and, DIMMs are expensive.
But when it comes to low latency and high-bandwidth the memory bus is hard to beat. But a terabyte? Diablo Technologies has announced one.
The secret is using flash instead of DRAM. Flash is much denser, lower-cost and uses much less power. And cheaper too.
As a result you can put terabyte of flash on a standard size DIMM. This moves in memory computing from expensive technology for critical apps to a much more affordable technology for many applications.
I wouldn't like to try running Memtest86+ (or other memory testing programs) on it. It would just take far too long!
That said, it sure is a nice amount to be able to brag about. :)
Flash?The secret is using flash instead of DRAM. Flash is much denser, lower-cost and uses much less power. And cheaper too.
As a result you can put terabyte of flash on a standard size DIMM. This moves in memory computing from expensive technology for critical apps to a much more affordable technology for many applications.
...
- Endurance. The product is designed to handle 10 full capacity writes - 10TB for a 1TB DIMM - every day for five years.
Given how often I see people complaining about their SSDs failing, I'll take this "with a grain of salt".
It might be alright for disposable items like phones and tablets.
I'm wondering how this thing is going to convince the RAM memory controller that it is in fact a SSD on DDR slots/bandwith.
I really hope it is a drop-in replacement as claimed in the actual press release. They call it MCS, Memory Channel Storage and other than storage can serve as some kind of SSD-based cache, ala Android.
It's not RAM. Flash is still pretty slow compared to DRAM. Running your system on these things only is either impossible (no boot) or not practical (dozens of seconds to move the pointer by a few centimeters).
Running on DDR means its controllers are in the CPU and thus bypasses chipset and is also located very close to CPU anyway. That's why it cuts latency.
That said, it's a cool gimmick. I like these clever things.
Now we have 3 main contenders as SSD connections: SATA-express, PCI-express, and now even DDR.
That's consumer-grade SSDs. They cut corners. A lot.Given how often I see people complaining about their SSDs failing
Server-grade SSDs are much more reliable. But cost something like 3-4 times as much per GB if not more. I mean who would pay 4000$ for the Intel SSD 910? It has 800 GB of capacity and is a PCI-e card, but... 4000$? I could build two high-end rigs with that.
This gimmick seems to be targeted at servers mainly, where such SSD cache would do a big difference by just sacrificing a few GB of RAM, at least for now. (also in the blade or 1U servers, where it would be a pain to fit a PCI-e SSD) So I assume it will use server-grade flash chips.
Still, like the idea. Clever.
1TB flash for SSD or jump drive sounds fine. I've actually been holding out for a reasonably priced 1TB SSD, but it isn't a priority for me since I wouldn't see much benefit from using a SSD over a HDD on my system, and would likely actually see a significant performance drop in some ways without hacking how Windows works so I could continue using features such as SuperFetch.
Either way, I have 64GB of real RAM (37.6GB/s). Works great.
Hi there
But a 1TB DIMM on your tiny 8 inch tablet just to order a delivery from some revolting fast food outlet !!! seems overkill (in more ways than one) !!.
I could buy a passable used BMW for that amount where I am. !!! (Too many Stinkingly Rich Russian visitors currently who can't be bothered to export them back to Russia after they've bust the suspension on our "Magnificent" Roads -- but they can be repaired quite cheaply actually !!!! we've YEARS of experience of that type of engineering).
Cheers
jimbo
Well, quad channel (vs. dual channel) helps it out a bit, too. I only have it running at the stock XMP of 1600MHz; not much more than your 1333MHz.
While faster is generally always better, as long as your RAM is fast enough for your needs, you're not going to see much of any significant performance improvement with faster RAM anyway. So, no worries.