ReadyBoost for PS3

[Butta]

Could the PS3 leverage the same kind of boost in performance in Linux and gaming load times as Vista does using a Readyboost like solution? From what I have read ReadyBoost gives a significant perfomance increase in PCs with low memory. This could make using Linux on the PS3 alot more tolerable...

With even 4GB flash memory being sold relatively cheap, this would be a major bonus!

Please close if this has already been covered.

 

[inefficient]

A simple way to achive a similar performance boost in Linux is to put your swap file on a fast flash storage like a USB device.

It's not advisble though because the OS will fail when the USB device is not connected. And there is no graceful way to disconnect it without rebooting the machine. So its not as flexible as ready boost but it accomplishes the samething.

Linux even with a fancy window manager like E3 or Gnome running is not nearly the resource hog Vista is. So there is probably less incentive for a normal person to go to this trouble. But technically it could be done if necessary.

 

[Asher]

Putting the swap file on a USB key is in no way the same thing. ReadyBoost automagically caches frequently used applications on a flash drive, it's not a page file on a flash drive.

I also think your swipe at window manager resource usage is a bit unnecessary, as it's completely unrelated...

 

[one]

You may be able to connect a flash drive via SATA instead of an HDD.

 

[inefficient]

Putting the swap file on a USB key is in no way the same thing. ReadyBoost automagically caches frequently used applications on a flash drive, it's not a page file on a flash drive.

I also think your swipe at window manager resource usage is a bit unnecessary, as it's completely unrelated...

It's not magic. It's just a filesystem cache. Windows has always had a filesystem cache it's just stored in main memory. All disk reads get cached in main memory. That cache reduces the impact of launching the same application a 2nd time. There was no point paging the filesystem cache out to disk - the reason is obvious.

In XP, the size of the filesystem is automatically set depending on how much total system memory you have. But in windows server you can actually manually set it. If you had gobs of memory like 4GB, then your filesystem cache would be very large - large enough to almost completely avoid cache misses after the first read. If you only had 256MB it would be small and probably could not cache sometime like a whole MS office application well if at all.

In Vista what they implemented is a 2nd level filesystem cache for flash drives for PCs with small amounts of memory.

If the swap file was stored on a flash disk, the filesystem cache could be paged from main memory to that flash storage when system memory needed to be made availible and then paged back quicky as needed. This accomplishes the same end result.

 

[aaaaa00]

It's not magic. It's just a filesystem cache. Windows has always had a filesystem cache it's just stored in main memory. All disk reads get cached in main memory. That cache reduces the impact of launching the same application a 2nd time. There was no point paging the filesystem cache out to disk - the reason is obvious.

You misunderstand what ReadyBoost does. It not only speeds up launching the same application a second time (acting as a file cache), but it will speed things up even the first time you launch your app after you boot your system.

Vista has the SuperFetch service that over time learns the file access patterns of programs, and if you have a flash drive plugged in and ReadyBoost enabled, SuperFetch will pre-emptively populate the cache with stuff to anticipate what the apps are going to access. Not only that, but since flash is non-volatile, the cache will persist, so even after you reboot, the system will pick up the file from the flash-based non-volatile cache if it is present.

Also, most flash drives are faster in random access, but slower in sequential access than your hard disk, so ReadyBoost is smart enough to tell when a large sequential I/O comes in, and allow the appropriate device to service it, instead of always going to the flash device.

A flash-backed page file provides none of these things.

 

[Arwin]

I guess what you could do partly is install some of your more frequently used applications, especially the ones that consist of lots of files , to a flash drive. It doesn't cover what readyboost does, but it is something at least. Maybe also good location for caching webpages, since that's lots of small files.

Or wait until someone writes similar technology for Linux of course ...

 

[a688]

Linux even with a fancy window manager like E3 or Gnome running is not nearly the resource hog Vista is. So there is probably less incentive for a normal person to go to this trouble. But technically it could be done if necessary.

Vista is a resource hog?

 

[Asher]

It's not magic. It's just a filesystem cache. Windows has always had a filesystem cache it's just stored in main memory. All disk reads get cached in main memory. That cache reduces the impact of launching the same application a 2nd time.

This is not what SuperFetch or ReadyBoost does...I'd suggest you read up on it.