Hi Liam,

On Sat, 20 Feb 2021 00:58:21 +0100, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 19 Feb 2021 at 22:46, Louis LaBrunda <Lou at keystone-software.com> wrote:
>>
>> I hadn't heard much about the memory a while.  Searching now I see that 256GB goes for about $1900 and 512GB for $9000,
>> not cheap.  If the prices come down and the size goes up, it would be a great object database with all the ease of
>> accessing the data (objects) via Smalltalk.
>
>I don't know where you are looking but those figures look *wildly* off to me.

I was talking about RAM cards (NVDIMM modules) not SSDs:

https://www.newegg.com/p/0RN-0020-000M5?item=0RN-0020-000M5&source=region&nm_mc=knc-googleadwords-pc&cm_mmc=knc-googleadwords-pc-_-pla-_-memory+%28desktop+memory%29-_-0RN-0020-000M5&gclid=CjwKCAiAg8OBBhA8EiwAlKw3kt54KfX2xMGJSIgTUKV4qnQ3LQp8ABciwn7MNm_aMh3FPmV6LN_Q_xoCvG4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://www.newegg.com/intel-512gb-ddr-t/p/0RN-0020-00082

http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?4037146_g10e&gclid=CjwKCAiAg8OBBhA8EiwAlKw3khpC5DI7GaeCiwG8JA85tMWgSoOBiY66kGQ3N9UXErZulLmrrPkHvRoCA94QAvD_BwE

The idea is that the objects placed in this area of ram are permanent (safe stored) and therefor constitute a database.
The Smalltalk programmer need only indicate that an object be part of the database, the VM then puts it (and other
objects it points to) in this special area of memory.  This requires some changed to the OS and VM to police ownership
of the database but I wouldn't think that would be too complicated.

As for the price differences between the RAM and SSD cards, my guess (I don't know for sure) is that even though the
memory can be byte addressable, the SSD cards are configured as 512 byte blocks that must be read or written as blocks.
That probably brings the price way down.

Lou

>A tiny 16GB disk is $20:
>
>https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Optane-Memory-Module-MEMPEK1W016GA/dp/B07CGYTXQK/
>
>A bigger 256GB one only $99:
>
>https://www.amazon.com/Intel-760P-256GB-80mm-PCIe/dp/B078VBL3T9/
>
>Intel also offers NVDIMM modules but those do not currently appear on Amazon.
>
>https://www.extremetech.com/computing/259155-micron-launches-new-nand-based-dimms-intel-announces-optane-dimms
>
>https://techunplugged.io/2020/07/03/intel-announces-2nd-gen-optane-persistent-memory-modules/
-- 
Louis LaBrunda
Keystone Software Corp.
SkypeMe callto://PhotonDemon