hardware RAM disk

[Tom Metro]

Running out of things to do with cheap DRAM? Have a machine that's fully 
loaded up on RAM, and you want a RAM disk, but don't want to use any 
system RAM?

I ran across this odd device today:

ACARD ANS9010 5.25 inch SATA x 2-to-DDRII RAM Disk
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SkuSearch_v2.asp?SCriteria=AA74660

Fits in a 5.25" drive bay, takes up to 8 DDR2 DIMMs (64GB), and provides 
a SATA interface to the host (actually 2, I guess for greater 
bandwidth). It also includes a CF slot and a battery with enough juice 
to keep it running long enough to copy the RAM to a CF card. Priced at 
$360 without RAM.

Should be faster than a Flash-based solid state drive. The manufacturer 
claims "IOPS 130,000 per SATA port."

So what would *you* use it for? A ZFS write cache, perhaps?

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/