

AGIGARAM DDR3: Upto 8GB Nonvolatile DDR3 RAM. - xtacy
http://www.agigatech.com/ddr3.php

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jcr
Interesting, but I find the form factor problematic. The biggest market would
be laptops, not servers, for the 'instant resume' it could offer.

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lsc
the market for servers would be very-fast persistent disk cache and/or just
really fast disk. "enterprise" types are willing to pay rather a lot for that
sort of thing. Rather more, I think, than most people will be willing to pay
for an instant-on laptop.

Combine a few of those things with appropriate marketing and something like
bcache[1] and you have a product you can mark up 10x over parts cost. Look at
FusionIO for a current-gen competitive (though slower) product.

[1]<http://bcache.evilpiepirate.org/>

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jcr
I totally agree with you on the "10x" price increase for "enterprise" gear,
along with much higher profit margins per sale. For notes, I've bought and
tested the hellishly expensive FusionIO PCIe devices along with a ton of
related flash based memory/storage hardware, including some stuff that is not
commercially available (i.e. without contracts/NDA's/...). A good example of
the latter --well at least a publicly known example-- would be the
CurtisWright battery backed NVRAM cards [1].

The trouble with this particular flash backed RAM device is manufacturing
costs, particularly your BOM (Bill of Materials - components). It's not a
terribly difficult or expensive device to make, so there will be competition
if it proves useful, and now the important thing is to quickly achieve volume
sales to reduce mfg/parts costs as well as competition. Initially targeting
"enterprise" for its high profit margin is most likely just a business
strategy to get started, with cheaper products planned for the future.

For example, FusionIO started off with extremely expensive "enterprise"
products, and now that OCZ and others are entering the market with roughly
similar "PCIE SSD" products for the high-end but "mass" market, the company
with the ability to ramp up production and reduce costs will be the eventual
winner.

And lastly, no, spending $15,000 for a single "hard disk" from FusionIO is
certainly not bragging rights. It was mostly just stupidity, albeit forced by
a need to test the most recent hardware. When I was a kid in the 70's, all
hard disks cost that much. ;-)

[1] <http://www.curtisswrightcommercial.com/Umem%20NVRAM/>

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lsc
>And lastly, no, spending $15,000 for a single "hard disk" from FusionIO is
certainly not bragging rights.

I'm pretty sure that middle management feels differently. I also evaluated a
FusionIO, and told my client he'd be /much/ better off with a few intel X25-E
devices instead. Much cheaper, and it's standard, so it's much easier to
upgrade once newer/better stuff is out, or to get a replacement if it breaks
after the support contract runs out.

The FusionIO was faster, but both of them were so much faster than the
spinning disk we were moving away from that I don't think it would have been
noticeable in production.

