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  3. April 2003

Re: Where is IBM?

Shields, Ken wrote: 

-----Original Message-----
<snip>

Having lots of cheap RAM and disk have interesting consequences that have yet to play out. Some researchers propose doing away with databases on hard disks and keeping gigabytes of data in RAM memory. The rationale seems to be the impedence mismatch between objects and database rows. By keeping everything in memory, you can maintain the data more easily in an object model. This also meshes nicely with the single level store model. But then again, you still have to address the issue of communicating with other systems and saving the objects to persistent store for backup purposes.
<end snip>
Hans, I believe the next quantum leap of technology will be the 'diskless' system.
Not an easy task, but as you alluded to in your write up, the cost of memory is dropping so dramatically
I can envision a computer, with perhaps 20 tera bytes of memory, and no disk.
Impossible you say...isn't that what makes technology so attractive, overcoming the impossible...
Ken

I don't think the "diskless" system is too far off. Consider Compact Flash (CF) memory cards. You might find it hard to believe that, although photography is perhaps my oldest hobby, I still haven't bought myself a digital camera. I've wanted to for a while, but the right mix of features and affordability has eluded me (at least up until recently). A year ago I was considering a 5 megapixel camera along with a 1G microdrive. But now you can buy a 2G CF card! OK, it costs about as much as the 5 megapixel camera I want, and 3 times as much as a comparable 1G card. But you know the price is going to drop over time, along with larger capacities. A 1G CF card is now cheaper that the 1G microdrive, so why bother with disk storage at all in that particular domain? And laptop systems can't be too far behind.

Cheers! Hans



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