flash drive as ram ?

[Nagger Pumper]

is it possible to plug in a usb flash drive into your computer so you can have that much extra ram ?

 

[Jeff]

I'm pretty sure that's a Vista thing. I haven't heard anything about it for Macs.

 

[Nagger Pumper]

could someone hook a massive storage device such as 80 gb external hard drive and use that as ram as well ?

 

[ToddG]

Using a HDD as RAM is automatic in WinXP and OS X. It's called "virtual memory."

Using a HDD -- especially one that relies on a slow USB connection -- as RAM defeats the purpose of having high-speed RAM in the first place.

 

[EDIT-XTREEM]

Using a HDD as RAM is automatic in WinXP and OS X. It's called "virtual memory."

Using a HDD -- especially one that relies on a slow USB connection -- as RAM defeats the purpose of having high-speed RAM in the first place.

What about using firewire 800?

 

[cwa107]

What about using firewire 800?

Firewire is still quite a bit slower than an SATA or PATA connection. If you must use virtual memory, your swap file should be located on a locally attached disk. I'm not even sure that it's possible to locate it on an external drive.

As for flash memory, keep in mind that the chips inside of the flash drive are not normal RAM, they are a completely different technology. Reads and writes are exponentially slower than true RAM.

If the point is to have more physical memory than you already have, the best option is to simply add memory. Virtual memory simply gives you a little more latitude by emulating true physical memory. The reason computers (Windows or Mac) are slower when they have small amounts of memory is because your system has to use VM to make up the difference. This is why there is a noticeable improvement when you add memory. Adding memory doesn't "add speed" per se, it just keeps your use of VM to a minimum.

 

[Jeff]

Continuing on what CWA said, anything besides RAM is not equal to RAM. All programs that you are running right now (including the OS) are loaded into the RAM. If the RAM fills up, parts of the process get moved to VM and new processes are loaded to RAM. That is why most computers slow way down when the memory gets stretched to its limits. Your hard drive has to make up for the lack of memory, and things read and write much slower to and from the hard drive. Flash drives are sometimes faster, but are still limited by BUS speeds. Until BUS standards increase, using flash drives won't really make that big of a difference.

 

[mikeyman]

If im correct ram runs at the bus speed of your processor or something
so a usb or firewire connection will not be able to match this
The idea of virtual memory is a temporary solution for programs which need a lot of cache at an individual moment
However with computers ram amounts increasing everyday this is not needed as much

 

[cwa107]

If im correct ram runs at the bus speed of your processor or something
so a usb or firewire connection will not be able to match this
The idea of virtual memory is a temporary solution for programs which need a lot of cache at an individual moment
However with computers ram amounts increasing everyday this is not needed as much

It's not just the bus speed that is a limiting factor. Flash RAM and normal RAM are not the same thing. They are two different technologies and flash RAM allows for significantly slower reads and writes than normal RAM.

 

[walmartconnect]

What about using firewire 800?

Even with awesome bus speeds, if you're dealing with an external HD, you're dealing with physical moving parts. I think that you would immediately be defeating the purpose of adding all of that "RAM" as read/write comparisons between hard moving mediums (the disks have to spin and the arm has to traverse after all) versus any kind of flash memory will certainly always make the flash memory the winner.

500gb of ram would be pretty sweet though :bone:

 

[CanadaRAM]

Real RAM responds in nanoseconds (5.4 Gbits per second for intel Mac RAM). Hard drives respond in milliseconds (1 to 1.5 Gbits per second -- but add several milliseconds to locate the starting point of each file). Flash drives respond in tens of milliseconds (.02 to .20 Gbits per second)

One problem with flash drives is that they have a finite number of read-write cycles and then they die. Not a problem for cameras storing photos on a daily basis. Big problem for an OS that wants to write and delete files thousands of times per minute.

Also with certain types of flash, you can't just rewrite a single data bit - you have to read a whole block, erase the block, and then write the whole block back, with the changed bit you wanted to write in the first place.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

 

[???]

Its sounds like a dumb plug by MS to get people to buy VISTA. USB is slow, it just wouldn't be worth it, not even with firewire.

Also bear in mind, that the life a USB memory stick is short and will be shortened considerable by using it as RAM.

 

[PowerBookG4]

I'm pretty sure that's a Vista thing. I haven't heard anything about it for Macs.

Vista can do this? ? You have to admit thats pretty cool.. if you have a macbook pro and have a limit of 3gb then you can add a few more gigs with flash memory if you happen to be doing something that is that memory intensive.

 

[NeoGreen]

How is that possible? Doesn't Ram run on a different specifications? I just installed Vista on my wife's PC I am going to try it.

 

[Alexis]

It's a crock. Even if it was possible, it would be pointless as mentioned in the points above.

 

[cwa107]

[EDIT: Post deleted as it was inaccurate: http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/02/08/analysis_vista_ready_boost/index.html ]