MetaRAM

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Computers and applications are so memory-hungry today that the quote once famously (and wrongly) attributed to Bill Gates back in the 1980s that "640 K ought to be enough for anybody" appears all but laughable. Manufacturers keep coming up with new kinds of RAM to keep us and our PCs satisfied. The newest is called MetaRAM. What is it, and what kind of future does it have? Keep reading to find out.

  

Most people know what RAM is and what it does, but not much more than that. There are all kinds of different types of memory and different settings. There are even three different types of DDR memory alone, and there are other types besides DDR. Each type of DDR is different settings and speeds. Picking up an extra stick of memory is complicated.

In case you are still not confused, there is now a whole new type of RAM, MetaRAM. Will MetaRAM become the next RD-RAM, and flop, or will it take off like the DDR lineup? We'll take a look at MetaRAM today. Is it just vaporware that will never make its way into the real market, or is it the next big thing?

The Need for More Memory

So how much memory do you need in your computer? This depends on lots of factors, such as what OS you are running or the types of applications you plan on utilizing. For your basic computer you can buy at Best Buy, 1 GB would be the minimum, and it's highly recommended you jump up to at least 2 GB. Using applications such as Adobe Photoshop and other applications that need to use excessive amounts of RAM will only increase the amount of RAM needed in a system. When running XP, 1 GB was plenty; now with Vista out now, 2 or 3 GB isn't unreasonable. The demand for more RAM is only increasing. We are left with 8 GB max that you can throw into a computer, and that isn't cheap.

Servers are computers that are meant to help run networks for businesses or even the Internet. These are typically not only one computer running, but made up of many different computers working together. Each computer can have 2 quad core processors, and 64 GB RAM. It sounds like a super computer from the future. In the server world, it's nice to have quad cores, but 64 GB RAM isn't up to par. Servers need more RAM than most PCs, and this is where most of the demand for MetaRAM will come from. The ability to stuff the motherboard full of MetaRAM will dramatically increase the amount of RAM in servers.

If you have ever read about Moore's Law, you know that his theory is that CPU transistors will double every two years. This theory is so accurate that it has almost become a "law." Memory isn't on the same page as CPUs, however. Memory takes about three years to double. Though there is no correlation to memory amount and CPU performance that says it needs to be 1 to 1, this is the foundation of the need for MetaRAM.

Next: What is MetaRAM? >>
 

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