Move over Fusion-io and RAMdisks with battery back up, Viking Technology has a surprise in store for you. Their DDR3 ArxCis-NV works as a standard DIMM in your machine, making installation and compatibility a snap. The difference is the super capacitor, available in a variety of sizes, which provides power long enough for the entire contents of the DIMM to be dumped to SLC flash for non-volatile storage in the case of a power outage or expected shut down. Once power is restored the contents of the SLC flash is dumped back to the DIMM and once again your storage media is back to running at DDR3 speeds. The slowest part of your storage will be the flash drive! If that sounds like something you’d like to know more about head to The Register.
"Viking Technology is a division of Sanmina-SCI, and its DDR3 ArxCis-NV is a DIMM that comes in 2, 4 and 8GB capacity points and operates at DRAM speed. It integrates into industry-standard x86 motherboards and functions in the host environment as a JEDEC standard DDR3 registered DIMM. If there is a power failure, or a host driven command, the ArxCis-NV will save all data in the DRAM to SLC (single-level cell) flash; upon power being restored, the data is written back to the DRAM ready for the system to access immediately following boot-up, provided there’s sufficient operating system-level support for such a restore."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Major Chinese supplier halts rare earths production in attempt to boost prices @ Engadget
- Nvidia Tegra roadmap slips a year @ SemiAccurate
- Unbricking and upgrading an ASUS wl520 router @ Hack a Day
- Rosewill Wireless-N WiFi USB Adapter @ Benchmark Reviews
- ARM’s Cortex A7: Bringing Cheaper Dual-Core & More Power Efficient High-End Devices @ AnandTech
- Can AMD survive Bulldozer’s disappointing debut? @ Ars Technica
- Leaked Intel roadmap reveals PCIe flash kit @ The Register
- AMD taps Papermaster as CTO @ The Register
I feel obligated to point out
I feel obligated to point out that a company called Netlist (and perhaps others) has made a very similar product for a while now (RAM with a capacitor-powered backup to flash memory on power loss).
It’s a cool idea, and it’s always nice to see more applications for SUPERcaps!
I’m familiar with the battery
I’m familiar with the battery powered ones, but I haven’t run into Netlist before