RAM disk vs paging + buffer cache

[Dave Brower]

In article <514 at opus.nbires.UUCP> rcd at nbires.UUCP (Dick Dunn) writes:
>
>What generally-useful features does a RAM disk have that I didn't
>consider?
>
>Comments, please.
>--
>Dick Dunn

Yup, lots of real memory is the way to go.  Witness the 128M Convex C-1.
Unfortunately, it's kind of steep:  I still hear 4k/M quotes on system
main memory :-(.  It's conceivable to build a BIIG ram disk for cheap,
and be nearly vendor indepandant.

Imagine a 160M Eagle plug compatible ram disk with 'horribly' slow 450us
dynamic RAM used as the paging area, /tmp, and /usr/tmp.  That helps you
right where some of the biggest bottlenecks are located.

-dB

-- 
{amdahl, sun, mtxinu, cbosgd}!rtech!daveb