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- Price, for one.  FLASH RAM in large quantities is more expensive.
- Density/space for another.  Hard drives store data more densely than
RAM.  35GB disks not so much, but consider the 140 and 300GB disks in
the iSeries or the 750GB disks for PCs.  Adding that much RAM will take
a lot more space.
- Heat and power.  You might not realize it, but the power consumption
and subsequent heat generation of RAM can be greater than disk.  I'm not
too sure about this one; it may be a wash in the end.
- Speed is a tradeoff. FLASH RAM isn't nearly as fast as normal system
RAM and modern 10 & 15K hard disks have higher sustained transfer rates
than FLASH.  FLASH will be much better at 'seeks' or random I/O, though.
The CF card I link to below can sustain 20MB/s transfer; modern hard
drives can do 60-80+MB/s.
- Reliability.  Believe it or not, FLASH RAM isn't really that reliable.
This can be mitigated with ECC technologies and other things, but those
will add to cost, space, heat/power, and may reduce speed.  FLASH RAM is
also generally limited in the number of writes it can sustain before it
wears out (reads AFAIK are unlimited).  This is in the thousands if not
millions, but there is generally a limit.

All of that said, RAM-based computing can be yours if you have deep
pockets.  At least for a PC.  There are several products out there that
use either normal RAM with a battery backup (normally good for no more
than a day or so of no power) or FLASH RAM to mimic a hard drive.  They
are comparatively pricey, though, and are still oriented towards
specific computing environments where hard drives aren't suitable (ex:
solid state is necessary due to vibration).

750GB 7200RPM hard drive: $345 and up:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Seagate_Barracuda_7200_10_750GB_Hard_Driv
e,__19215475
146GB 15K RPM hard drive: $500 and up:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=6335759 
8GB Compact FLASH RAM: $335 and up:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Lexar_8GB_CompactFlash_Card,__24275482

John A. Jones, CISSP
Americas Information Security Officer
Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc.
V: +1-630-455-2787 F: +1-312-601-1782
john.jones@xxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Greg Wenzloff
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 8:19 AM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Why do computers still have disk drives?

It's Friday -- often a quieter day in the office.

I was wondering why don't new computers like the i5 just have solid
state memory and forget about disk drives.   Think about it.   You can
get a 2GB thumb drive for $75 or less.    Why can't the manufacturers
just load about 200 GB of this solid state memory into the machine?
Think of the speed improvement.

Or am I missing something?
Maybe need more coffee.

Just my thoughts,
Greg

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