what happened to the i-ram 2?

[....]

There was a clearance sale and I got a ton of ddr2 basically for free.

I was interested in the original i-ram, but when I saw I ram 2 I knew I had to have it. a 32GB raid array was to yummy to miss, and with the increased specs it should be even faster.

So what happened to it, and what other alternatives are there?

PS

For those that don't know what this is, this is a ddr ram based drive, that is faster than any Hdd outhere, and in addition faster than basically all solidstate flash based hdds.

My motherboard takes up to 8GB, and I want to add 32 additional ones through such a device.

Benefits are obvious:
-ludicrous performance
-reduced loading times
-extend your physical hdd's life by using it only for data storage, and using this ram drive for hdd demanding apps, and for installing programs and running windows.
-a drive that lasts practically indefinitely(I've never had ram fail on me.)

 

[Davros]

get a hyperdrive 4
8000x faster at finding files than a 10,000 rpm SATA WD Raptor WD740ADFD
5500x faster at finding files than a 15,000 rpm SAS Seagate Savvio or Maxtor Atlas 15k II SAS drive
125x faster at serving files than a WD Raptor, certainly the fastest SATA drive on the market.
110x faster at serving files than any 15,000 rpm U320 SCSI or SAS drive.
700x faster at serving and receiving files than the latest Samsung laptop flash drives.

http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/

 

[I.S.T.]

If only they were based off of DDR2...

 

[Albuquerque]

get a hyperdrive 4
8000x faster at finding files than a 10,000 rpm SATA WD Raptor WD740ADFD
5500x faster at finding files than a 15,000 rpm SAS Seagate Savvio or Maxtor Atlas 15k II SAS drive
125x faster at serving files than a WD Raptor, certainly the fastest SATA drive on the market.
110x faster at serving files than any 15,000 rpm U320 SCSI or SAS drive.
700x faster at serving and receiving files than the latest Samsung laptop flash drives.

http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/

The major difference being: the I-Ram was actually affordable, at least far more so than the HyperDrive.

 

[MfA]

Given that something like this is both cheap to design and produce ... I would hazard a guess patents spoiled the day.

 

[....]

Given that something like this is both cheap to design and produce ... I would hazard a guess patents spoiled the day.

Do you know where I could get info on the required h/w and software for constructing such?

It would be a nice project. I'm sure one can get around patents by selling the components and parts separately and for multiple other uses.

 

[....]

JUST CHECKED MY EMAIL AND I'VE THEIR REPLY

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your interest in the award winning IRAM product. The follow-up version has been put on hold. A tentative release will be this fall. No specifications have been released at this moment, nor release dates. To keep up to date with the latest product news and announcements, please see our website or subscribe to our newsletter.

http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/newsletter.asp

Thank you for using Gigabyte products

Oh MY GOD!!!

32GB DDR2 raid drive here I come!(hopefully!)

 

[I.S.T.]

Given that something like this is both cheap to design and produce ... I would hazard a guess patents spoiled the day.

The biggest cost is the ram. Look up the prices, your jaw will drop faster than a character in a Warner Bros. cartoon!

 

[nutball]

Ummmm... correct me if I'm wrong but aren't there major design flaws with iRAM-1 and iRAM-2? (related to what happens when ... erm ... when the power goes off...)

 

[MfA]

Do you know where I could get info on the required h/w and software for constructing such?

Gigabyte's design pretty much nailed it ... use a cheap FPGA and a PATA-SATA bridge chip (Lattice has cheap FPGAs which can do SATA natively, or even PCIe but PCIe cores are a whole lot harder to design, but they don't support it with their free version of their design tools). You can drive the DRAM at very low clocks, so you don't need to worry about timing so much. As for software, the FPGA design software is free. DDR2 cores can also be found free.

It's a pretty big project though You have to design the circuit board, code for the FPGA and the windows device driver (I'd use a microcontroller core in the FPGA for the ATA interfacing, much less work, these can also be found for free ... or if you are using Lattice provided for free by the manufacturer).

As for reliability, just use a HD or Flash as a backup. Writes are relatively infrequent (or if they are frequent they usually hit the same spots over and over, making them irrelevant to the necessary bandwidth for backup).

I find it strange no Chinese company decided to produce knock-offs of the I-RAM with DDR2 while Gigabyte was delaying it over and over ... I'd be surprised if the cost to manufacture one of these things for a company which already has contacts for producing say motherboards would go much beyond 25$. Even at low volumes (1000s) they could earn back their costs while selling it at the 100$ you pay for an DDR1 I-RAM now (and I'm certain Gigabyte will charge closer to 400$ for their I-RAM2).

 

[....]

Ummmm... correct me if I'm wrong but aren't there major design flaws with iRAM-1 and iRAM-2? (related to what happens when ... erm ... when the power goes off...)

It has about 10 to 16 hours of internal battery power, iirc + I've heard you can back-up the contents with laptop hdds, and you can also use uninterrupted power supplies to extend that time, and as a last resource an emergency activated back-up electric generator.

This is a ram drive, it lasts forever, you can use your other hdds to keep your data, and this one for installing demanding apps and windows. In the event all of the above failed, you'd only have to reinstall windows and some apps(All your REAL data is safe in the other Hdds, whose lifespan has been extended thanks to reduced use due to this drive.)

 

[nutball]

The last time I saw any info about IRAM-2 it had an external power supply. Maybe the plans have changed since then but that was a ROFL moment.

It has about 10 to 16 hours of internal battery power, iirc + I've heard you can back-up the contents with laptop hdds,

You can back anything up ...!

and you can also use uninterrupted power supplies to extend that time, and as a last resource an emergency activated back-up electric generator.

All of which is a fuck-ton of hassle.

This is a ram drive, it lasts forever,

Really? For how long do you think 32GB or storage will be relevant?

In the event all of the above failed, you'd only have to reinstall windows and some apps(All your REAL data is safe in the other Hdds, whose lifespan has been extended thanks to reduced use due to this drive.)

More hassle...

Get a 73GB 2.5" SAS drive, it'll be cheaper, easier, more secure!

 

[MfA]

With many orders of magnitude higher access times ... personally I don't see the value in high end HDs, their performance increase doesn't warrant their price (nor their noise levels). For the cost I'd rather build a RAID out of cheap HDs. Far more storage and more throughput at the cost of a slightly higher access time.

If you want to pay a large premium for access times but think the I-RAM isn't practical get a flash disk. Access times of 0.1 ms is worth a premium more than the fractional reduction high RPM drives give you. Since interrupt latencies set a lower bound on access times anyway the IRAM2 will have a hard time competing with the relatively cheap MLC flash drives which will hit the market this year.

PS. personally I'd implement a DRAM drive as a huge write back cache for a flash drive, you could probably finish writing to the flash drive from battery backup. If the power was gone for too long all that would matter is that the drive would be slower for a while.

 

[....]

With many orders of magnitude higher access times ... personally I don't see the value in high end HDs, their performance increase doesn't warrant their price (nor their noise levels). For the cost I'd rather build a RAID out of cheap HDs. Far more storage and more throughput at the cost of a slightly higher access time.

If you want to pay a large premium for access times but think the I-RAM isn't practical get a flash disk. Access times of 0.1 ms is worth a premium more than the fractional reduction high RPM drives give you. Since interrupt latencies set a lower bound on access times anyway the IRAM2 will have a hard time competing with the relatively cheap MLC flash drives which will hit the market this year.

PS. personally I'd implement a DRAM drive as a huge write back cache for a flash drive, you could probably finish writing to the flash drive from battery backup. If the power was gone for too long all that would matter is that the drive would be slower for a while.

not only access but write times too. For heavy photoshop use and heavy video editing, can a flash drive compete with an i-ram2? not to mention longevity, I honestly have to wait some time before I buy into the "longevity issues of flash solid state drives are gone for good!".

What will last you longer a ddr2 based drive or a flash drive, especially for heavy use of highly taxing apps?

Really? For how long do you think 32GB or storage will be relevant?

When coupled with other hdds that are upgraded for data storage and installing non-demanding apps, for 5-10 years easy.

PS

I like to backup my dvd collection and my data, and I also do backups of my backups. I also download public broadcast docs, and other free vids like conferences and courses, legal p2p with lots of uploading and or seeding, as well as some genomes for my collection. I also have several intensive apps like photoshop and video editors and converters. All in all a few TBs might go through my system at any one month, and I've had several high quality Hdds fail on me due to intense use after years of massive use.

A raid array based on DDR2 is bullet-proof. Not only does ram last a ridiculous long time, but if there's any extremely rare failure the raid configuration allows me to easily replace the damaged part and get back to work easy as cake.

 

[swaaye]

32 GB is almost pushing it for a production Vista partition, let alone MS's next overloaded-with-value-added-junk OS.

How about instead you just get 8 GB of system RAM and a 16 GB ReadyBoost USB stick?

 

[BRiT]

Swaaye, you're not thinking broad enough. I already have 8GB ram and a ReadyBoost USB drive. It doesn't do enough to help out VPC performance.

I and many others would love to grab an iRam-2, load it with 32GB, copy VPC images to it, and run them from there.

 

[swaaye]

I just wish that we could finally have a replacement for mechanical HDDs altogether. These RAM devices don't really seem like the answer, although they certainly do get the job done on a small scale.

 

[....]

32 GB is almost pushing it for a production Vista partition, let alone MS's next overloaded-with-value-added-junk OS.

How about instead you just get 8 GB of system RAM and a 16 GB ReadyBoost USB stick?

The problem is the heavy p2p and dvd movie and archival dvd data backup along with extensive genome downloading(I intend to personally backup all publically available sequences, for future data mining... especially those related to negligible senescence animals, which will likely get on the queue for future sequencing any day now, and closely related species, particularly mammals.). I doubt a flash based media can handle years of such abuse, but ram's a big boy and can take it, in addition to providing even further increased performance.

I will also acquire high speed DNA sequencers and DNA synthesizers(the local uni probably has some, I'll get them a budget increase and have them focus on such equipment and research to save on money, let the gov pay for my power)

If the human population self destructs, in one of the many world-end scenarios I must have the technical know how, and highly trained technicians, to analyze and extract the key to negligible senescence and transfer it via artificial human chromosomes to stem cells for advanced therapies and organ creation.

 

[....]

I just wish that we could finally have a replacement for mechanical HDDs altogether. These RAM devices don't really seem like the answer, although they certainly do get the job done on a small scale.

High density and high speed mram could do the trick. It probably will be my next move, if there are no longevity issues in whatever nanotechnological approach is used to achieve the high density + high speed + cheap killer combo.