Diablo conjures up hell of a DIMM: 128GB NAND pretend-RAM summoned

Friday 22nd July 2016 18:37 GMT Joerg

NAND flash will be useless and die quickly with such a usage scheme.

3D XPoint is going be as reliable as RAM and way faster than NAND so used as a RAM cache makes sense.

This product with NAND configured as cache is completely useless and unreliable.

3 7 Reply
1. Sunday 24th July 2016 00:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  "is going to be"
  
  AKA "isn't yet". It's an experimental technology that has not yet entered mass production in any form, which makes it about as useful as a non-existent rock. Waiting for the possible future to filll existing requirements, when there are technologies available now that are "good enough", is silly.
  
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  1. Sunday 24th July 2016 20:27 GMT PNGuinn
    
    " ... which makes it about as useful as a non-existent rock"
    
    Have you, sir, ever considered the multitude of things you can usefully NOT do with a non-existent rock?
    
    No, thought not ...
    
    1 0 Reply
    1. Monday 25th July 2016 07:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
      
      Re: " ... which makes it about as useful as a non-existent rock"
      
      I liked the bit about "complex web applications".. I think what they mean is badly written web applications :-)
      
      I've noticed that in a lot of organisations you're better off having an application which needs a lot of resources and hand holding as management tend to think that this kind of application is important rather than realising that it is simply badly written and/or badly designed.
      
      Managers also like the feeling that their applications and by extension they, are "special" and buying "special" memory feeds this rather nicely.
      
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2. Sunday 24th July 2016 11:26 GMT Sorry that handle is already taken.
  
  You got shares in Intel Joerg?
  
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Friday 22nd July 2016 18:55 GMT Detective Emil

Data? What data?

What I don’t understand (and the company’s web site does not explain) is why the product is volatile in the face of power failure if it’s using NAND, a non-volatile storage technology. Maybe it’s that the driver software makes no guarantee about what’s in DRAM and what’s in NAND when the lights go out.

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1. Friday 22nd July 2016 19:16 GMT Lennart Sorensen
  
  Re: Data? What data?
  
  Because they made it that way. What they don't say is how they ensure it is erased on poweroff. How would I trust that it is done at poweroff and not at poweron (which would mean it is actually quite insecure, unlike what they claim).
  
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2. Friday 22nd July 2016 19:24 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Re: Data? What data?
  
  I figure there's a second product w/ non-volatility coming. Clearly, that code would be more finicky thus slowing time to market. This way, the HW doesn't get more obsolete than necessary.
  
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Friday 22nd July 2016 19:10 GMT Steve Davies 3

What's the point?

This will cost an 1) An Arm, 2) A leg, 3) A kidney and 4) the lives of your unborn children.

When(or if) it gets to a price that people other than Donald 'The Wall' Trump can afford please let us know.

4 1 Reply
1. Saturday 23rd July 2016 06:32 GMT Destroy All Monsters
  
  Re: What's the point?
  
  You seem to not be the target market.
  
  Financials? Military? Government/Federal/EU?
  
  "Money" is not a problem (it's someone else's anyway).
  
  3 1 Reply
2. Saturday 23rd July 2016 09:49 GMT Doctor Syntax
  
  Re: What's the point?
  
  "This will cost an 1) An Arm, 2) A leg, 3) A kidney and 4) the lives of your unborn children."
  
  According to the article it's a good deal cheaper than the equivalent real RAM. That's the point.
  
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Friday 22nd July 2016 19:14 GMT Lennart Sorensen

Not interested without proper support

Until they even try to get the drivers for this (and their previous teradimm) included in the OS, I would not touch it. The support could disappear at any time and you could be left with a system you can never upgrade.

I don't see any indication they have even tried to get their linux drivers included in the official linux kernel source. Throwing stuff on github and then ignoring it for over a year is not support.

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Friday 22nd July 2016 22:34 GMT Bronek Kozicki

Wait ...

... is that a microSDXC card reader at the top of the radiator?

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Friday 22nd July 2016 22:55 GMT GrapeBunch

Whenever I hear yadda about Diablo, I wait for Qume to produce a more accessible marguerite.

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Sunday 24th July 2016 09:33 GMT short

MLC DRAM?

Hmm, DRAM's too expensive? NAND is improving that with MLC. Is the work that's gone into writing levels, reading levels, and error correction not applicable to DRAM too? They even get a constant scrubbing with refresh cycles, so you'd hope wouldn't have to worry about drifting too far. Even 2 bits per bit would be a win.

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