Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!lamaster
From: lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Hugh LaMaster)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Solid State Secondary Storage
Keywords: ram, wafer, disk
Message-ID: <20470@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 9 Jan 89 16:30:26 GMT
References: <248@vlsi.ll.mit.edu>
Reply-To: lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Hugh LaMaster)
Distribution: comp
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 19

In article <248@vlsi.ll.mit.edu> young@vlsi.ll.mit.edu (George Young) writes:

>Our wafer scale integration group is considering developing a new kind
>of computer memory unit -- something we hope might fill in the present

>The Question Is:  What's it good for?  How might it be integrated into 

Well, I think what you describe is exactly the use of the Cray SSD as a
disk buffer cache; CDC has had various versions of "ECM", some of which
had such limitations, for ~20 years or so, and many companies use RAM
in disk controllers as a cache- so, as long as the access time is
significantly shorter than disk access time, it should work as a disk
read buffer in various configurations.

-- 
  Hugh LaMaster, m/s 233-9,  UUCP ames!lamaster
  NASA Ames Research Center  ARPA lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov
  Moffett Field, CA 94035     
  Phone:  (415)694-6117