Laptops with Big RAM?

Fubari wonders: "Anybody know when laptops over 4gb might be coming out? Some of the dev-tools I want to run are just obscene RAM-pigs. On the desktop I'm using now (Win2003), it sucks up 1.6gb just to boot. By the time I log in and start doing work, it is stretching 2Gb. Move that to Vista, add a VM-Ware session or two, and I'm worried I'll be pushing 4Gb. I'm torn between buying a 4Bb-max laptop now, or some mini-desktop that can fit in a set of luggage wheels. A friend of mine suggested something like this, but my first choice would be something designed to be portable. Any suggestions?"

Comments

Why not get one

[Timesprout]

with a few smaller ewes instead?

Re:Why not get one

[nick_davison]

with a few smaller ewes instead? Speaking as someone who grew up on the border of Wales, can I recommend goats? They're like sheep but with the added convenience of handlebars.

Harder than you think

[HardCase]

You've got a couple of problems to deal with. The first is power consumption - two 2GB modules will consume a crazy amount of power. It's quite surprising just how much power a couple of modules require. The second is space. Current DRAM components are too large to fit 2GB worth on a single SODIMM. Take a look at the space on a DDR2 UDIMM and you'll see that there's almost no extra room on one of them.

2GB SODIMMs are built - I've worked on some creative designs that stacked DRAM components to achieve the necessary density, but the modules aren't suited for laptops because they're too thick and a notebook can't provide the necessary cooling.

It seems to me that you're a year or two ahead of technology, I'm afraid.

-h-

Re:Harder than you think

[HardCase]

Oh crap, here I am replying to my own post. Where I said 2GB, please substitute 4GB instead. D'oh!

More than 4 GB?!?!

[Sneakernets]

good god.


4 GB should be enough for everyone.

16GB Dual-Proc SPARC

[KatTran]

http://www.tadpole.com/products/notebooks/bullfrog dp.asp

FEATURES AND ADVANTAGES:

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                    o Dual CPU 1.2GHz UltraSPARC-IIIi, 1 MB level 2 Cache with 1GB-8GB memory per CPU (Up to 16GB total)
                    o Solaris 9 Operating Environment
                    o Full-length PCI slot supporting Windows co-processor, network adaptors, high end graphics and many other options
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                    o Consolidation of Solaris and Windows onto one box
        * Redundancy:
                    o Dual Disk Drives with capacity of up to 200GB (100GB + 100 GB)
                    o Built in UPS
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Re:16GB Dual-Proc SPARC

[KE1LR]

Battery life: 12 seconds. :-)

Re:16GB Dual-Proc SPARC

[TeknoHog]

With this solution the poster would have to switch to unix, but then he/she probably wouldn't need such obscene amounts of RAM.

Re:strange requirements

[HTH NE1]

4Bb : 32 bit^2 ?

I guess those would be Biggabits.

Have you considered...

[hummassa]

that some people need to run the WHOLE shebang and on top of it simulate traffic/load conditions on the db server OR on the app server OR on the client and simluate hundreds/thousands of clients and that this requires immense amounts of RAM but is otherwise feasible to obtain more reliable results using virtualization? And that the same person might want to do it on the road (AKA: using the clients' tools, but away from the clients' control -- so (s)he can tweak the conditions at will) and that if you have 30-50 different enterprisey clients you don't want to have to connect remotely to your datacenter in other state -- you just want to load the whole thing in your laptop and see where is the fscking problem that makes an inventory entry take 5 minutes instead of 20 seconds, so the client will shell out the big bucks that this person deserves? (been there, done that, but in my consultant time I was hitting the road with 3-4 server-class machines in the luggage -- hotels probably hated me when the electrical bill came and yes, I carried some full-sized fire extinguishers with me also)