Ram as a flashdrive?

[Mr. Cucumber]

Can ram chips be used (with integrated power source) as a flash drive? .... Extreme speeds? ... (I know the usb interfere is a bottleneck... it'll saturate any existing USB interface though...is it even possible?)

[Canada EH]

I see lots of links for flashdrive as ram.

[Electronics Wizardy]

technically yes, practically its a bad idea, your limited by usb, and you always need power. You can get sas ram disks, and a usb adapter.

[Skiiwee29]

There is a way you can do it, its call a RAM disk. But beware, it is VOLATILE memory still. 

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/260918/how_to_supercharge_your_pc_with_a_ram_disk.html

[FancyPants101]

I think they need to take the concept of Cache drives and ram disks and sort of auto use them or make settings for it for various programs. I don't know if they do this. I'm assuming not. But they could make it so certain parts of a program or certain folders are marked for transfer to a ram/cache drive so they can reduce the needed space to use them. They could even make it with some priority listing so that some things go directly into ram while others go into the cache. This could massively help system performance and save space and cost of performance. And the ram drives could be temporary when loading a program. Assuming you can't just load it by default as part of the program.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, FancyPants101 said:

I think they need to take the concept of Cache drives and ram disks and sort of auto use them or make settings for it for various programs. I don't know if they do this. I'm assuming not. But they could make it so certain parts of a program or certain folders are marked for transfer to a ram/cache drive so they can reduce the needed space to use them. They could even make it with some priority listing so that some things go directly into ram while others go into the cache. This could massively help system performance and save space and cost of performance. And the ram drives could be temporary when loading a program. Assuming you can't just load it by default as part of the program.

The os already does this for you. All the extra ram is used as a disk cache, as there are algothrms to know what data is most likely to be used next and to prefetch files you may need

[SupaKomputa]

He's thinking of using Ram as a removable storage with a dedicated power source to maintain the memory.

Not using a ram as a long term storage.

Volatility is not the problem. 

 

Yes why not, it's interesting, we can get a super fast file transfer medium for as long as the battery lasted.

I think is possible, but no one have ever done this. (that i know of).

But by using USB3.1, the bandwidth would be capped to its limit (10gbps), whereas a 2133 DDR4 can get 17gbps minimum.

 

If one can make stuff like this, i would buy it. I have a lot of 512-1gb memory left over as a keychain that i loved to utilize to something more useful.

[FancyPants101]

Oh, that would be interesting. Just make it out of ram that is also capped at the same data transfer rate(or more for future proofing). If lower transfer would it be low capacity though? If anything you could actually make a ramdisk that way. It could be powered by the USB instead of a battery for a volatile version for temporary use as say cache ram to save speed on the HDD. And it would allow lots of additional ram on the system you couldn't get otherwise potentially. Or does USB not give enough power? IF so keep it plugged in with a battery that can be charged/kept topped off in the USB until removable for temporary transfer. Do any batteries have the ability to keep it going? It could work as short term transferable ram potentially. If longer battery power exists it could be more.

 

That would be very useful potentially as addon ram to the system. I have an annoying cache file on linux I could dump for one of those. Never need a cache partition again! >< (or cache file)

 

I could also add on an additional total system ram if it lets you. I have some old 1-2gb sticks laying around. Several of them actually. And lots of Esata power USB2.0 connectors on the back of my mobo.... Like 12 of them. 8d