Why does the OS have to be loaded ?

[b18]

Sydney mate

I did not go back as far as the Amiga days , as my first OS was a DOS 6.2 and I am hesitant to take OS class during my undergrad days

IF you are talking about loading OS within seconds, well actually the system I built a while back can load Windows XP Pro within 11 seconds time [normal untweaked , cost AUD 3k a year ago ] and its about the same time my Axim X50v load from a reset.

Sure you can have closed system like before, but for consumer market that move is not feasible now as people love to load everything nowadays.

Maybe you can see Xbox as a sample of a closed system OS and see how 'upgradeable' that beast is.

 

[Pablo]

think got those Linux that can boot from CDROM and thumb drive (without need to install), so booting from ROM/EPROM/flash shld be possible? :embrass:

Hi Paul_Yeo,

Ahhhhh, now you have my brain cell looking around for another one it can share ideas with :bsmilie:

I rember seeing just what you mentioned about a version of Linux that can run from a thumb drive !!!!

Ok... as you probably know, thumb drives of 2Gig ate very cheap these days.

If you were to go along the path that Sandisk is and use the U3 idea, why not have the OS in the one partition

of the thumb drive and your personal files in the other partition of the thumb drive.

You boot an essentially "dumb" computer with your thumb drive.

What your essentially "dumb" computer has is all the hardware eg. graphics cards, sound cards etc. and the drivers are on its hard drive.

You can then go to any essentially "dumb" computer and it will boot from your thumb drive with your personality.

Ok, as I said, "my cell is wandering aimlessly" so forgive me if I am not making sense here

 

[kitkat]

Yes, this is a wishlist. However, the current OS architect (I mean largely Microsoft Windows) will need to overhaul (I mean the large part of Win32 API and drivers) and this can lead to more expansive maintenance drain down to IT Engineers. It can also be a hindrance for a normal user especially if there is a malicious code which may caused be a greater problem for EEPROM. Lots of compatibility issues.

It will take a long time before we can reach this on a affordable and manageable system for the home user.

Right now, at least Vista can be on a thumb drive- it is a major achievement for Microsoft.

 

[Pablo]

Yes, this is a wishlist. However, the current OS architect (I mean largely Microsoft Windows) will need to overhaul (I mean the large part of Win32 API and drivers) and this can lead to more expansive maintenance drain down to IT Engineers. It can also be a hindrance for a normal user especially if there is a malicious code which may caused be a greater problem for EEPROM. Lots of compatibility issues.

It will take a long time before we can reach this on a affordable and manageable system for the home user.

Right now, at least Vista can be on a thumb drive- it is a major achievement for Microsoft.

Hi kitkat,

I am not about to correct you, "I have a bit of reading to do", but are you shure that Vista

can be run from a thumb drive :dunno:

I was not aware of that. Vista, as for XP is very big.

If as you say,"Right now, at least Vista can be on a thumb drive-",
it makes the whole point of the discussion completed with that statement.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Eprom or any static ram is way too slow for the CPU today......that's why there is a need of the very fast dynamic ram......in pair somemore in latest platform to form 64bits data path......right now there is something very close to your idea is this http://216.147.36.17/livestore/prod...=2940&osCsid=7288a8452a4de2b04b52e025c6123831

Unfortunately Dram is highly volatile and yes, like someone above mentioned, you need battery to power when in standby mode......that's why it's not common solution for mainstreem user to increase your OS speed :dunno:

 

[Pablo]

Eprom or any static ram is way too slow for the CPU today......that's why there is a need of the very fast dynamic ram......in pair somemore in latest platform to form 64bits data path......right now there is something very close to your idea is this http://216.147.36.17/livestore/prod...=2940&osCsid=7288a8452a4de2b04b52e025c6123831

Unfortunately Dram is highly volatile and yes, like someone above mentioned, you need battery to power when in standby mode......that's why it's not common solution for mainstreem user to increase your OS speed :dunno:

Hi Big Kahuna,

In a nutshell what you said tells all.

Others have mentioned very similar views as well.

Thank you for the link also.

I had not considered the 64 bit data path scenerio either.

Good points !

Cheers

 

[Big Kahuna]

It arrived sooner than we can think of :thumbsup:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/04/ces2007_sandisk_32gb_ssd/

 

[Pablo]

It arrived sooner than we can think of :thumbsup:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/04/ces2007_sandisk_32gb_ssd/

WoW, go Sandisk :thumbsup:

 

[arpinkor]

Well, whichever way, at the very least, the kernel will have to be loaded into RAM from whatever non-volative storage. Theoretically, you can build a battery-backed DRAM-based "hard disk" to house just the OS and maybe some of your commonly used apps but it's gonna be very expensive. Currently, I guess besides solid-state disk (dunno how many times can rewrite and also write-performance is ?), users can use the hibernate function (instead of shutdown). As for SSD, because certain parts of the OS disk needs to be written to constantly (especially the logs), the OS has to be clever enough to route all these continuously written files to a real harddisk otherwise it will wear out the SSD.

 

[yanyewkay]

MRAM read about it here
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59559,00.html

released 2003 but not widely adopted yet.. when.. oh when...

edit: a more recent 2006 article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5164110.stm