Re: What was that ram disk....

[Warren Ernst <wernst@gmail.com>]

On Dec 11, 1:20 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
> MrB...@gmail.com wrote:
> > On Dec 11, 12:12 pm, schmidtd <schmi...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> >> On Dec 11, 12:46 pm, waynejstew...@gmail.com wrote:> There was the Axion Ramdisk. A 320k external solid state box that
> >>> imitated two DOS 3.3 drives.
> >> A review of the Axlon Ramdisk from Bob Sander-Cederlof:http://homepage.mac.com/bobsc/aal/1982/aal8207.html#a6
>
> > Excellent!  I think that gets me close enough to what I was thinking.
>
> > Its just funny how SSDs are now becoming popular again when this type
> > of tech has been around for more than 25 years.
>
> It's an old idea with few applications because of cost and volatility.
>
> Flash now solves the volatility problem, and seems capable of eventually
> competing with magnetic storage on cost and speed (still way off on
> both, but OK in some applications).
>
> -michael
>
> ******** Note new website URL ********
>
> NadaNet and AppleCrate II for Apple II parallel computing!
> Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/
>
> "The wastebasket is our most important design
> tool--and it's seriously underused."

Its possible you're thinking of the external battery box for Applied
Engineerings "RamCharger." The RamCharger was something that looked
exactly like a Disk ][ drive, but it contained a heavy, bulky battery
for keeping AE's RamFactor (a Slinky-style memory card) Ramdisk in
memory while the computer was powered down. With such a device, you
could use the RamFactor like a solid-state hard drive.

Though I didn't have the ramcharger, I did use my RamFactor like a
hard drive that way - I just kept my //e on 24/7 for years. ProDOS 8
would boot in like 2 seconds, and AppleWorks in under 10.

-Warr