Windows Has a Future In RAM: AgigaTech Samples DDR3+Flash DIMM

An anonymous reader writes "AgigaTech appears to be the first company to produce a non-volatile SDRAM DIMM — an SDRAM memory module that retains its contents even without power supply. The modules combine DDR2/3 SDRAM with NAND Flash as well as a data transfer controller and an ultracapacitor-based power source to support a data transfer from the SDRAM to Flash and vice versa. If this memory makes it into production, this is something that I instantly will want and will stand in line for."

Comments

Eh?

[eugene2k]

What's windows got to do with it?

Less interesting than the writer thinks.

[queazocotal]

This will require essentially the same software infrastructure as normal suspend to RAM.

The system still has to go through the steps:
Check to see if any critical tasks are running - if so, pause suspend, and ask user.
Same with any communications tasks that may be interrupted.
Stop tasks.
Save state from all hardware to RAM.
Suspend to RAM.

Just capturing an image of the running system does not result in a system that will resume.

It's not a case of put one of these magical DIMMs in, and you're fine for power cuts.

Is it possibly interesting - sure.
But in real life, it may have very little advantage over a seperate flash device, for main memory.

Now, as a super-fast SSD - truly awesome.

Also - WTF - this should never be patentable.
This is not an invention worthy of patent.
It does nothing novel that is not implicit in the problem statement.
'I want a non-volatile RAM'.

Re:Less interesting than the writer thinks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Having to save was fine back in the days when it took 20 seconds to save to disk. These days, every change should be able to be saved and logged to a change log on a second by second basis. Saving should be banished and everything should be able to be rolled forward and back. People keep saying computers are more than fast enough, so put that extra power to actual useful things.

Re:Less interesting than the writer thinks.

[TheRealMindChild]

You don't want this, the same as you really don't want a "never reboot" PC.

Saving to disk is an explicit action of "This is at a state I want it to be in". If it is persistent, for instance, and my kids/cat/whatever edit it beyond repair, I don't want that existing instead of my work. You could argue about rolling back, based on your logging suggestion, but you just made a simple paradigm into an over-engineered tedium. Also, think about having to play back that log every time you opened it, multitudes of keystrokes and menu commands could be needed before it is ready.

Re:Zero watt 'suspend' instead of 'hibernate'

[Anonymous Coward]

The summary is implying that windows (or other OS)

Then why not say something non-ambiguous like "keep entire operating system in memory"? This is Slashdot not NewbDot. They don't have to "imply" anything; just say it.

Re:Zero watt 'suspend' instead of 'hibernate'

[Anonymous Coward]

Err no, there would be a load time because it's exactly "hibernate to SSD". It's just that they control the RAM-to-SSD bandwidth so they might in theory make the load time faster than a software solution, but they give no number.

You are assuming that there will be separate RAM and NAND chips on this module. If the flash memory is interleaved with the RAM cells in the IC's then the data will never have to hit the bus and never have to be serialized. If this is the case the NAND-cells only have to be connect to the RAM-cells in a way that they are "nudging" the cells in the correct direction during power on and the memory will be fully loaded before the motherboard even releases the reset-signal to the CPU.