SATA RAM disk tested

Piffle... I remember when companies like Dataram sold solid state disks for DEC PDP-11s to speed up databases. Used 'em myself for that purpose, for real-time warehouse/distribution center tracking databases.

This ACard product is overpriced and underpowered. And it should be able to support two different systems with two SATA ports, i.e., dual ported disk.

You kids nowadays just don't have the same imagination as we did back then.

Why not a PCIE connector card to really put that memory to work?

I own an Gateway i-RAM with 4 GiB and it is great. The address space of my PC is limited to 1.5 GiB and that memory is needed for my applications. The additional 4 GiB ramdisk is being used to store object files, libraries and other intermediate files of various software projects. The compilation time of my software dropped dramatically. I also use the ramdisk to emerge packages for Gentoo Linux, with all temporary files stored on the ramdisk. The only problem is OpenOffice, which requires more than the available 4 GiB disk capacity. An interesting feature of the i-RAM is that it keeps all information intact, even if you "turn off" the computer. The standby mode of the power supply provides enough current to refresh the ramdisk while the rest of the computer remains off. And its internal backup battery is sufficient to provide the current for a short power outage. So, I have already added the new ACard ramdisk onto my shopping list. Just waiting for the end of the financial crisis. ;-)
Hey, I may even add one to my OpenVMS/Alpha machines.

Fusion ioDrive http://www.fusionio.com/Products.aspx

I really hope someone will produce a 2-4GB DDR2 DRAM Cardbus or Express card disk for use for swap or Windows Virtual Memory swapfile. It will be a quick and easy way to boost laptop performance and extend battery life, particularly as the RAM limits of Windows and many chipsets are already being reached. It will also help boost security by automatically wiping the pagefile upon reboot.

How much are they paying you? You sound like a press release. I agree with the other guys. Every time I see a ram drive product they always seem to get something wrong...be it the price, bus. A few slots, battery and a controller chip for a real speed boost. £50 at most, come on. It's almost like a conspiracy to get us to buy newer hardware...

I bought an ANS-9010, after having had a Gigabyte i-RAM some years back and missing the fast access time. The i-RAM was okay for its time, especially since it was around the time when DDR2 was coming out and I could stuff my old DDR1 RAM into it. Unfortunately the battery it came with was shoddy and quickly started to bulge and bloat, so I removed it; DDR1 was also becoming scarce and was expensive. Another annoyance was that it occupied a PCI slot for power, which would take up too much space requiring essentially two slots (not to mention the heat). As for the ACARD, I like that I can use dirt-cheap DDR2 RAM to fill it up (8GB was like $100), that it uses a 5.25" drive slot instead of a PCI slot, and that it has data integrity mechanisms (10% RAM used for ECC, battery, CF slot, etc.). I use it for my swap file, temp directories, photoshop swap and other stuff like it. Bandwidth throughput is about the same as any hard drive, but the access time is about 3-4 orders of magnitude faster. @Widd: Expect that enterprise SSD card to cost 10x or more the price of the ACARD. Commodity DDR2 sticks are also bulky and are best placed in drive bays for space and cooling concerns. @Rich Wargo & Ire Am: Don't buy it if you are unreasonably cheap. This product is probably the lowest price of any RAM-based SSD on the market, or any fast SSD solution for that matter. Why you would want it to support two systems on the same card, in the same case--which could be easily done in software anyway--is beyond me; just buy two if you're hell bent on it. It's also ironic that $100,000+ solid-state storage solutions for DEC mainframes are mentioned when this costs a mere $300 or so--far below contemporary solutions even.

I wont be buying it as is my right as a consumer. And I'm not being unreasonably cheap. I just think that given the technological advances we've made this sort of thing (given that it doesn't come with RAM) should be much cheaper than it is. It does far less than a motherboard for example ( which has memory controlling hardware). A quick check shows a mobo, processor, and some ram comes out cheaper than this.
I accept economies of scale will come into it. By now, though, IMO as an interested watcher of this concept for many years, it should be at a significantly lower price point.