Demand Paging
Why DRAM is Threatened by SSDs
Conventional wisdom holds that SSDs will someday displace all HDDs, but in reality SSDs are proving to be more of a challenge to the DRAM market than to the HDD market.
Right now you are probably reviewing the date of this post to make sure it’s not dated April 1. I assure you that this is the truth. To understand it, though, you must look at a computer as a computer architect would, or, in other words, the way that an application program sees the memory/storage hierarchy.
To the application program there is no HDD and memory, there is only memory. The Virtual Memory system, a part of the operating system, hides the difference between the two by moving code and data into DRAM as it is needed and back onto the HDD when it is no longer important, without telling the application program that it is moving anything around. I like to tell people that the DRAM makes the HDD look fast, and the HDD makes the DRAM look big.
If you think of the DRAM as something that makes the HDD look fast, then additional DRAM should help to make the Continue reading →
Search
Categories
- Business Strategies (40)
- DRAM (59)
- Memory Cards and USB Flash Drives (8)
- Memory Interfaces (12)
- Memory Manufacturers (57)
- Memory Markets (48)
- Capital Spending (13)
- Market Share (8)
- Memory Applications (12)
- Price Trends & Forecasts (16)
- Production Capacity (10)
- Supply & Demand (19)
- Memory Packaging (12)
- Memory Test (3)
- NAND Flash (97)
- Other Current Memory Technologies (20)
- NOR Flash and Serial NOR (13)
- Other Nonvolatile Memories (3)
- SRAM (10)
- Technical Trends (51)
- Charge Trapping (7)
- Packaging Advances (7)
- Process Geometries & Die Sizes (10)
- Vertical Structures (34)
- Tomorrow's Memory Technologies (57)
- Uncategorized (2)
Archives
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- September 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- January 2018
- November 2017
- October 2017
- August 2017
- June 2017
- April 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- October 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- February 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011