4 ms·

Does anyone remember SoftRAM? Basically it was fraud, but claimed to double your ram using software.

Someone 6y ago
SoftRAM was a fraud (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM ), but RAM Doubler (https://tidbits.com/1994/01/10/ram-doubler/ https://tidbits.com/1994/01/10/ram-doubler/ , https://www.amazon.com/Connectix-R010836-RAM-Doubler-9-0/dp/B00004W37M; https://www.amazon.com/Connectix-R010836-RAM-Doubler-9-0/dp/... “Currently Unavailable”) worked, and modern OSes may still use the technique of, instead of swapping out memory pages, compressing them so that a page becomes available (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory_compression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory_compression)
- judge2020 6y ago
  MacOS definitely uses memory compression, it's probably the only thing making an 8gb macbook viable for anything more than pure safari and Zoom. https://www.lifewire.com/understanding-compressed-memory-os-x-2260327#mntl-sc-block_1-0-14:~:text=How%20Compressed%20Memory%20Works%20on%20a%20Mac https://www.lifewire.com/understanding-compressed-memory-os-...
  - z92 6y ago
    So does Fedora's latest release. zram0 partition. zipped RAM drive. And measuring speed of my /tmp directory, have a feeling it resides on RAM.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  > A number of people have expressed disbelief that such a feat is possible, saying that they’d avoid anything like RAM Doubler because it’s obviously doing strange things to memory, which isn’t safe. The answer to these naysayers is that a program like RAM Doubler either works or it doesn’t – it’s a binary decision. Cool that the technology was available and weird that the knowledge behind why it would work was not more widespread. I take issue with the statement here though - it's not binary. It's of course important if it works in normal situations, but how does it work under extreme memory pressure or certain incompressible memory pages? Et.c.
- Stratoscope 6y ago
  It's funny how memory works. Human memory that is. When I read the title of this article and thread, I thought, "This sounds a bit like that fraudulent DOS memory doubler. What was it called again, RAM Doubler?" Oops. Thanks for setting the record straight!
treeman79 6y ago
It sort of is real, and not. You can you use your hard drive as memory. As a kid I found this fascinating, and spent a day getting it working. Then you learn about thrashing. Oh wait, disk drive is a million times slower than ram.
pengaru 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zswap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zswap
sandymcmurray 6y ago
You can always download more RAM. https://downloadmoreram.com/ https://downloadmoreram.com/
gfosco 6y ago
I certainly do :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21768499 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21768499

SoftRAM was a fraud (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftRAM ), but RAM Doubler (https://tidbits.com/1994/01/10/ram-doubler/ https://tidbits.com/1994/01/10/ram-doubler/ , https://www.amazon.com/Connectix-R010836-RAM-Doubler-9-0/dp/B00004W37M; https://www.amazon.com/Connectix-R010836-RAM-Doubler-9-0/dp/... “Currently Unavailable”) worked, and modern OSes may still use the technique of, instead of swapping out memory pages, compressing them so that a page becomes available (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory_compression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory_compression)

judge2020 6y ago
MacOS definitely uses memory compression, it's probably the only thing making an 8gb macbook viable for anything more than pure safari and Zoom. https://www.lifewire.com/understanding-compressed-memory-os-x-2260327#mntl-sc-block_1-0-14:~:text=How%20Compressed%20Memory%20Works%20on%20a%20Mac https://www.lifewire.com/understanding-compressed-memory-os-...
- z92 6y ago
  So does Fedora's latest release. zram0 partition. zipped RAM drive. And measuring speed of my /tmp directory, have a feeling it resides on RAM.
kzrdude 6y ago
> A number of people have expressed disbelief that such a feat is possible, saying that they’d avoid anything like RAM Doubler because it’s obviously doing strange things to memory, which isn’t safe. The answer to these naysayers is that a program like RAM Doubler either works or it doesn’t – it’s a binary decision. Cool that the technology was available and weird that the knowledge behind why it would work was not more widespread. I take issue with the statement here though - it's not binary. It's of course important if it works in normal situations, but how does it work under extreme memory pressure or certain incompressible memory pages? Et.c.
Stratoscope 6y ago
It's funny how memory works. Human memory that is. When I read the title of this article and thread, I thought, "This sounds a bit like that fraudulent DOS memory doubler. What was it called again, RAM Doubler?" Oops. Thanks for setting the record straight!

treeman79 6y ago

It sort of is real, and not. You can you use your hard drive as memory. As a kid I found this fascinating, and spent a day getting it working. Then you learn about thrashing. Oh wait, disk drive is a million times slower than ram.

pengaru 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zswap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zswap

sandymcmurray 6y ago

You can always download more RAM. https://downloadmoreram.com/ https://downloadmoreram.com/

gfosco 6y ago

I certainly do :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21768499 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21768499