so i was sitting around thinking. we keep getting faster speeds and all. but nothing is really different.

why can we not have a computer that bypasses RAM and directly accesses the HD.. or since that would be too slow. could we not have a computer run entirely off of RAM.. non volatile RAM.. I realize it would be small but is not most of the OS now bloated crap.... and since it would have to be non volatile then imagine the boot speeds.

why can we not change our approach instead of speed focus on simplicity.
Do we really need 1TB HD... or a OS this bloated.

what do you all think ?

...I find it interesting that you have brought this subject up. I have been surfing around quite a bit lately...and have seen that you can now buy USB Flash-Memory dongles as big as something like 32-36Gb, and a lot of late-model boards are capable of booting from USB. I had actually considered a couple of internally mounted USB Flash-Memory modules and try installing an OS to them. Maybe this might be a challenge for someone out there to take a crack at?

Do we need 1TB hard drives? No.

Do we want 1TB hard drives? Yes.

If it's just the OS, and a few programs like internet, communication, media, then no we don't need the huge hard drives. However, for things like Media, unless you have a DVD or Bluray movie, you need space now for HD content, or space for games, which is why most people buy new video cards like an 8800. To run the computer, 1 TB is not needed, but for programs, 1 TB is still not needed. That'd be a lot of games. 1000 gb worth!

I read once of a 2TB Non-Volatile Optical RAM thingy used in a 6GHz proof-of-concept Optical Laptop... but apart from that no idea how they're gonna move on from current technology.

There are many why can't we this and why can't we that. And of course if you have this kind of use you can't possibly imagine that another have that kind of use. Anyway as there are so many uses and configurations, it will always be bloated, as well as the need for time-to-market also makes things that way. There are possibilities to tweak, and you can of course program it yourself, but as programmers are a limited resource you have to live with what you got.

And on speed... in the computer you may have a 2 core 2,5GHz CPU, but the commuication link to the RAM is mostly on a 800MHz or 1066MHz bus (if you're lucky you have dual bus). From the memory to the harddisk you have a SATA controller with a theoretical capacity of 3GBit/s, onto a PCIe bus. But neither a flash disc nor a current harddisk are able to come close to the limits.

I think what he is trying to say is that we need to "rethink" the way we compute. And I mean completely rethink and reinvent. People need to start thinking if that needs to happen, and it might need to happen in the future.

@Superhai: You are right about the speed capabilities, we can't make a flash drive go faster than a SATA drive.

well put it into perspective of the gaming industry.... we got faster and faster and at what point is fast enough.... then nintendo said wait a second something is wrong.. lets rethink this. so they started over... and while they are not the most powerful machine.. wiis are something completely different .

i question myself by even suguesting simply removing something would solve our problem. i dare someone to think outside the box . forget everything we know and think again of a solution.

i am starting a local computer store . we will be assembling pcs and offering. XP mac and vista installs on PC hardware. anyone have some brand name ideas.... im looking for something memorable like DELL.. apple... google.

I guess it can be done, but HDD´s are too slow and RAM is too expensive. Yo can have Solid State Drives, but they are not cheap and, as far as I know, are not reccomended for Journaled File Systems.

well hopefully memresistors will change everything. but the laptop with the 6ghz was presumably a hoax. nothing came of it after it appeared at CES and the website is s***.

You talking this site: http://atomchip.com/ ? I think that's the site as referenced from http://www.zeropaid.com/news/5673/6.8GHz+L...on-volatile+RAM

Hey just read this topic, I've heard about a few things that are going to be changing in the years to come.

The first one I have heard about is Quantum Computing, it's been listed on Wikipedia but I don't really know what it is but I'm guessing it's going to be a big step forward in computer technology.

The other is 'The Grid' that is meant to be replacing the Internet. Faster speeds and all that.

Perhaps in 20 years time we'll be in a flying car =P