[THIN] Re: RAMDISK

  • From: Steve Snyder <steven_snyder@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 20:20:46 -0800 (PST)

Or for those of you who recall Digital's non-voltile
ramdrives for VAXs, here's the modern equivalent (they
claim to increase a citrix box's scalabilty, so I'm
interested to read what Bernd thinks about it)

http://www.tigicorp.com/tigijet.htm

fwiw - I used to use ramdrives in the old days to
increase compiling performance until disk-caching
pretty much gave me the same advantage, which is why I
think its largely unused these days

--- Alexander Danilychev <teknica@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Bernd is right -- 32-bit memory addressing allows
> access only 4 gigabytes of 
> physical memory (2 GB for user addressable memory,
> unless you are on Windows 
> 2003 when you can bump it to 3GB at OS expense).
> RAMDISK, as I understand, 
> has access to kernel memory space.
> 
> I am not sure, however, I share Bernd's concerns ?
> techniques like ?PAE x86? 
> (this is where Joe?s comment comes in) change the
> memory addressing from 
> 32-bit addressing mode to 64-bit addressing mode
> (check interesting article 
>
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/proddocs/techref/W2K3TR_pae_what.asp).
> 
> In other words, even on 32-bit OS/hardware using
> RAMDISK sparingly should 
> not create a problem.
> 
> In any event, RAMDISK can be used to force specific
> apps, let say 
> tracing/logging application, to run from RAMDISK and
> collect data there 
> (temporarily of course). Otherwise we might have
> very little control 
> regarding app data placement (memory versus disk) if
> we have no access to 
> the source code.
> 
> ALEX
> 
> 
> >From: "Joe Shonk" <joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >Reply-To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >Subject: [THIN] Re: RAMDISK
> >Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 10:29:41 -0700
> >
> >I'm not sure where you are getting that 4GB
> limitation.
> >
> >Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003
> Standard supports 4GB Max.
> >Windows 2000 Advanced Server supports 8 GB Max
> >Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition supports 32
> GB Max (x86 Based
> >Processors)  64GB Max for the DataCenter Edition.
> (again x86 bases)
> >
> >HP has 2xway Xeon servers that support 16 GB of
> RAM, and 4xway Xeon servers
> >that support 32-64G of RAM.
> >
> >Joe
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
> >Behalf
> >Of Bernd Harzog
> >Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 7:29 AM
> >To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >Subject: [THIN] Re: RAMDISK
> >
> >I would be very interested in knowing if anyone has
> been able to use a =
> >RamDisk in terminal server environment to any great
> effect. Here my =
> >concern. You have 4GB of addressable memory in
> Windows NT/2000/2003 when =
> >running on 32 bit chips. Let's say you have 4GB of
> RAM on a server, and =
> >an 8GB page file (12 GB of virtual memory). If you
> take 512MG of RAM and =
> >make a RAM disk, you may cause the OS to take 512MB
> of stuff that was in =
> >RAM in put it on the page file. In other words you
> are simply robbing =
> >Peter to pay Paul with no net gain.
> >
> >If someone has results that are different than what
> I have outlined =
> >above, I would be very interested to hear about it
> >
> >Best Regards,
> >
> >Bernd Harzog
> >CEO
> >RTO Software, Inc.
> >bernd.harzog@xxxxxxxxxxx
> >678-455-5506 x701
> >www.rtosoft.com
> >
> >  -----Original Message-----
> >From:        Alexander Danilychev
> [mailto:teknica@xxxxxxxxxxx]=20
> >Sent:        Sunday, February 15, 2004 12:06 AM
> >To:  thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >Subject:     [THIN] RAMDISK
> >
> >Run into an interesting site regarding RAMDISK.
> There might be =
> >interesting=20
> >uses for Citrix related applications:=20
> >http://home.tiscali.be/ir006712/RAMDisk/RAMDisk.htm
> >
> >Based on Microsoft RAMDisk sample (Q257405). Code
> for original "free"=20
> >version 1.0 is available here:
> >http://codeguru.earthweb.com/system/RAMDisk_src.zip
> >
> >Free version or $10 for "extended" version 2.2.
> >
> >Here is some info from the site:
> >"A RAMDisk acts as a virtual drive on your system.
> It allows you to =
> >create=20
> >directories, copy files to and from it, etc.... The
> data however is not=20
> >written onto a hard disk, but remains purely stored
> into a particular =
> >part=20
> >of your RAM memory. Hard disks have mechanical
> parts that allow to seek =
> >to a=20
> >particular position on the magnetic storage media
> and to read/write =
> >data.=20
> >This make them relative lazy. A RAMDisk can read
> and write the same data =
> >to=20
> >upon 30-60 times faster than a hard disk ! However,
> the data stored in =
> >your=20
> >RAM is "volatile" : it disappears when you cut off
> the power to the RAM=20
> >memory, with other words, if you turn off your
> system. This applies to =
> >the=20
> >content of the RAMDisk too !"
> >
> >ALEX

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