[GPett]

Hello... I am no hardware guru to know what is or is not out there. All I have found is the rather old ACARD Ramdrive. I would love to find a SATA 6.0 Hardware RAMdrive that uses DDR3.

DDR3 prices are insanely cheap right now. Such as $24.99 (2X4GB) 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 Patriot ram.

Does something like this exist? I am guessing no.

[MRFS]

No. I've been investigating this topic for several years,
and I also have a patent pending on such a device.

Meanwhile, you might want to look into RamDisk Plus:

http://www.superspee...top/ramdisk.php

I also wrote a long review of RamDisk Plus here,
which the vendor liked very much:

http://www.supremela...Plus.Review.htm

You can't load an OS into such a ramdisk, however.


And, here's a forward-looking technical paper I authored in July 2010
on this same subject:

http://www.supremela...s.version.3.pdf


The closest you can come right now, with the speed you want,
is to assemble multiple 6G SSDs e.g. SandForce controllers,
in a RAID 0. Reportedly, those SSDs are doing READs at
~ 550 MB/second, which is very close to MAX HEADROOM for SATA III
(allowing for controller overhead).

And, there are now a few reviews on the Internet of
multiple 6G SSDs configured in RAID 0 arrays.


What I believe also needs to happen is at least 2 additional enhancements
before RAM-based storage can begin to realize its true potential:

(1) increase the standard SATA transmission speed to 8 GHz; and,
(2) incorporate the PCI-E 3.0 standard jumbo frame of 128b/130b during transmission.

(Note: the volatility problem of RAM has been been solved, but many IT enthusiasts don't know it, yet.)

These 2 changes will permit SATA/SAS channels to transmit 1 Gigabyte per second
in each direction: that, in turn, will provide a welcome and badly needed increase
in the raw bandwidth that is appropriate when DDR3 SDRAM is the storage medium:

DDR3-1066 x 8 = 8.5 GB/second (aka PC3-8500)

Clearly, the interface speed is the limiting factor.

Our patented invention uses a "quad-channel" architecture with a MAX HEADROOM
initially of 2.4 GB/second (4 @ 600), and 4.0 GB/second by incorporating the 2 enhancements above.


I hope this helps.


MRFS

[GPett]

MRFS, on 25 September 2011 - 10:53 PM, said:

No. I've been investigating this topic for several years,
and I also have a patent pending on such a device.

Meanwhile, you might want to look into RamDisk Plus:

http://www.superspee...top/ramdisk.php

I also wrote a long review of RamDisk Plus here,
which the vendor liked very much:

http://www.supremela...Plus.Review.htm

You can't load an OS into such a ramdisk, however.


And, here's a forward-looking technical paper I authored in July 2010
on this same subject:

http://www.supremela...s.version.3.pdf


The closest you can come right now, with the speed you want,
is to assemble multiple 6G SSDs e.g. SandForce controllers,
in a RAID 0. Reportedly, those SSDs are doing READs at
~ 550 MB/second, which is very close to MAX HEADROOM for SATA III
(allowing for controller overhead).

And, there are now a few reviews on the Internet of
multiple 6G SSDs configured in RAID 0 arrays.


What I believe also needs to happen is at least 2 additional enhancements
before RAM-based storage can begin to realize its true potential:

(1) increase the standard SATA transmission speed to 8 GHz; and,
(2) incorporate the PCI-E 3.0 standard jumbo frame of 128b/130b during transmission.

(Note: the volatility problem of RAM has been been solved, but many IT enthusiasts don't know it, yet.)

These 2 changes will permit SATA/SAS channels to transmit 1 Gigabyte per second
in each direction: that, in turn, will provide a welcome and badly needed increase
in the raw bandwidth that is appropriate when DDR3 SDRAM is the storage medium:

DDR3-1066 x 8 = 8.5 GB/second (aka PC3-8500)

Clearly, the interface speed is the limiting factor.

Our patented invention uses a "quad-channel" architecture with a MAX HEADROOM
initially of 2.4 GB/second (4 @ 600), and 4.0 GB/second by incorporating the 2 enhancements above.


I hope this helps.


MRFS

Whoa... Overachieve much?

A simple yes or no answer would have sufficed.

Seriously, Thanks for the wealth of information. Good luck with your project. You might be what the RAM memory market is looking for to lift memory prices out of the basement. Cheers!

[FastMHz]

AFAIC, a DDR3 ramdisk only has one option for interface - PCI-E. SATA is painfully slow for a real RAMDisk - The flash SSDs are already saturating it. Might as well skip over SATA and put a bunch of battery backed ram onto a PCI card.

[Telstar The Sorcerer]

I think we better wait for intel version of thunderbolt with pci-e 3.0 to have sufficient bandwith, or at least 8 lanes of pcie 2.0.

ADATA has something but afaik it uses ddr2.

[FastMHz]

I did an experiment not long ago where I sectioned an 12gb RAMDrive out of my system memory (I have 16gb total so this was fine) and proceeded to use VirtualBox to install Win7 onto a virtual drive placed on the ram disk.

All I can say is that it made my SSD feel slow...

[xchaotic]

FastMHz, on 10 October 2011 - 07:02 PM, said:

I did an experiment not long ago where I sectioned an 12gb RAMDrive out of my system memory (I have 16gb total so this was fine) and proceeded to use VirtualBox to install Win7 onto a virtual drive placed on the ram disk.

All I can say is that it made my SSD feel slow...

I played around with software based RAMDisk - much better than SSDs, but not close to theoretical limits

Attached File(s)

•  diskmark-ramdisk.png (42.18K)
  Number of downloads: 1

[DUART]

I hate to have to bump this 'old' post but I have a pet peeve...

According to MRFS, if he's right, I want to combat this RAMDRIVE issue
because we truly need a DDR3 RamDrive system so Here' my wishlist:

RamDrive3 with 8 DDR3 RAMslots, all on PCI and/or PCIe x16 cards
-onboard ARM RISC based .ASM CPU with BIOS?
-onboard BATT
-onboard USB for R/W and Format Access to RamDrive3 to backup/restore/modify
-various LED indicators for blah...

I figure 64GB suffices as one would just load an OS or something, but
this HAS to be built. This HAS to be Built.

Edit: I would design one myself if one can help me on Bridging, Stepping.

Card should be about $189US and should smoke (not Jenie) on thruputs, right?
-UART

This post has been edited by DUART: 09 February 2013 - 08:55 AM

[extasz]

DUART, on 09 February 2013 - 08:51 AM, said:

I hate to have to bump this 'old' post but I have a pet peeve...

According to MRFS, if he's right, I want to combat this RAMDRIVE issue
because we truly need a DDR3 RamDrive system so Here' my wishlist:

RamDrive3 with 8 DDR3 RAMslots, all on PCI and/or PCIe x16 cards
-onboard ARM RISC based .ASM CPU with BIOS?
-onboard BATT
-onboard USB for R/W and Format Access to RamDrive3 to backup/restore/modify
-various LED indicators for blah...

I figure 64GB suffices as one would just load an OS or something, but
this HAS to be built. This HAS to be Built.

Edit: I would design one myself if one can help me on Bridging, Stepping.

Card should be about $189US and should smoke (not Jenie) on thruputs, right?
-UART

Here some fire blasting pci-e ssd in raid configuration:

Fusion-io releases ioFX SSD card: 420GB for $2,495

OCZ Technology ZD4RM88-FH-800​G 800GB Z-Drive R4 PCI Express

Fusion-io ioCache VM Edition 600GB Cache Accelerator (F07-001-600G-CS-0001)

it's around 7,000 $

and if you have too much $$$ this dream

www.fusionio.com/products/iodrive-octal/ of 5 tera

This post has been edited by extasz: 13 February 2013 - 06:22 PM

[DUART]

extasz, on 13 February 2013 - 04:59 PM, said:

Here some fire blasting pci-e ssd in raid configuration:

Fusion-io releases ioFX SSD card: 420GB for $2,495

OCZ Technology ZD4RM88-FH-800​G 800GB Z-Drive R4 PCI Express

Fusion-io ioCache VM Edition 600GB Cache Accelerator (F07-001-600G-CS-0001)

it's around 7,000 $

and if you have too much $$$ this dream

www.fusionio.com/products/iodrive-octal/ of 5 tera

...well,. at least they exist.