Interesting new technology in MS Vista - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Bill Wood · #1 02-02-2007, 05:46 PM

I was doing a little reading about Microsoft Vista mainly looking for any new technology and concepts included in the OS. One thing that caught my eye is a thing called "SuperFetch".

Superfetch is an advanced memory caching feature that includes 2 capabilities: ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive. It speeds up your computer by keeping track of the programs you use most and pre-loading them into memory when that memory is not being used for something else.

ReadyBoost - This allows you to speed up your computer by using flash memory as additional RAM. You can simply plug in a USB thumb drive and tell Vista how much of the thumb drive you want to use. Since flash memory is faster than a hard drive it speeds up your computer.

ReadyDrive - Later this year we will start seeing a new type of hard drive hitting the market called a "Hybrid Drive". It's simply a traditional hard drive that also includes some non-volitile flash memory (NAND). The flash memory will work like the ReadyBoost described above but can also contain the files to boot your system and run programs. The result will be MUCH FASTER boot times. This is an especially big deal for laptops because it will increase battery life and improve reliability. If there's enough flash then the hard drive won't even have to spool up. Also. if the laptop is accidently dropped, the risk of loss of data is significantly reduced if the hard drive is not spinning and the heads are parked.

CPU's have increased in speed exponentially over the past 20 years but hard drives have not seen anywhere close to the same improvements. Advances in the area of non-volitile memory are about to change all of that. Sandisk already has a 100% solid state drive called the Sandisk SSD UATA. It has no moving parts and is very fast. A Toshiba laptop was fitted with one of these and could boot Windows XP in 12 seconds.

Additional info and links:

Vista Performance Features

Hybrid Storage Alliance

Carson357 · #2 02-02-2007, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Webmaster

I was doing a little reading about Microsoft Vista mainly looking for any new technology and concepts included in the OS. One thing that caught my eye is a thing called "SuperFetch".

Superfetch is an advanced memory caching feature that includes 2 capabilities: ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive. It speeds up your computer by keeping track of the programs you use most and pre-loading them into memory when that memory is not being used for something else.

ReadyBoost - This allows you to speed up your computer by using flash memory as additional RAM. You can simply plug in a USB thumb drive and tell Vista how much of the thumb drive you want to use. Since flash memory is faster than a hard drive it speeds up your computer.

ReadyDrive - Later this year we will start seeing a new type of hard drive hitting the market called a "Hybrid Drive". It's simply a traditional hard drive that also includes some non-volitile flash memory (NAND). The flash memory will work like the ReadyBoost described above but can also contain the files to boot your system and run programs. The result will be MUCH FASTER boot times. This is an especially big deal for laptops because it will increase battery life and improve reliability. If there's enough flash then the hard drive won't even have to spool up. Also. if the laptop is accidently dropped, the risk of loss of data is significantly reduced if the hard drive is not spinning and the heads are parked.

CPU's have increased in speed exponentially over the past 20 years but hard drives have not seen anywhere close to the same improvements. Advances in the area of non-volitile memory are about to change all of that. Sandisk already has a 100% solid state drive called the Sandisk SSD UATA. It has no moving parts and is very fast. A Toshiba laptop was fitted with one of these and could boot Windows XP in 12 seconds.

Additional info and links:

Vista Performance Features

Hybrid Storage Alliance

i just bought windows vista ultimate, havent had alot of time to enjoy it yet, but seems pretty good, i have a laptop on ebay right now that i just loaded it on, will be getting a newer one soon. send me an email if interested in it

Zeus · #3 02-02-2007, 07:52 PM

Hey Bill,

Yeah, the USB flash - RAM thing caught my attention when I read about it, smart move my MS. All in all, it looks like a really nice OS. Promises to be stable and security is improved. I like the aero feature and the sidebar - similar to Apple's dashboard but those two companies will one up each other forever, hopefully to our ultimate benefit.

What's nagging me about Vista is the upgrade cost. $249 to upgrade to Vista Ultimate. With WinXP and SP2, a decent firewall and antivirus, you've got a product that's pretty damn similar in terms of performance, security and function. A lot of cash for a pretty face and a few neat features...

...but I'll probably buy it in a couple of months.

TheDon · #4 02-02-2007, 08:06 PM

OS 10.4.9 and 10.5.0 are stilll waaaay ahead ...

LaRondo · #5 02-02-2007, 08:12 PM

There have been reports about 'Vista' having major security flaws.
Wink, wink.

Bill Wood · #6 02-02-2007, 09:30 PM

I'll wait until I build my next computer before I upgrade. The computers I have now run fine on XP so I don't want to go through the hassle of reformatting drives and reloading all of my apps. That's the only way I would EVER upgrade an OS anyway.

As long as Windows maintains a dominant market share it will be the #1 target of hackers. If you are a hacker, what's the point in spending hours to write code that hacks an OS with 5% market share?

TheDon · #7 02-02-2007, 09:35 PM

Friend of mine told me that it is not even worth it upgrading XP to Vista. Better off getting a new computer built for Vista. I have the RC2 at school to play with.. alot better than RC1 and the last Beta release...

Honus · #8 02-02-2007, 10:45 PM

I wouldn't know an operating system if it bit me, but I am happy with the iMac we got a few months ago. No need to reboot every other day.

Bill Gates has been doing the rounds pushing Vista. In an interview with Newsweek he said that Apple is lying in its commercials. Not that he's going to miss my business, but that interview pretty well guaranteed that I will buy Microsoft products only when i have no other choice. Maybe Vista is a good product, but he's got a lot of nerve running down his competition that way, especially after the crap his company has been putting out for so many years.

iwrock · #9 02-02-2007, 11:02 PM

Indeed these technologies are cool.... But when you have 4 gigs of memory and 2 gigs of it is occupied by vista, you start to worry...

raymr · #10 02-03-2007, 12:48 AM

I thought that repeatedly writing to flash memory ruins it. Has something changed? As far as using memory for other things, you can cache everything out the ying-yang if you have enough of it available. Mainframes have been using LRU algorithms for years, as well as cacheing at the disk controller level, OS level, and application level. People might consider what MS is doing is cool, but it's certainly not new.

wbain5280 · #11 02-03-2007, 01:04 AM

IBM's Mainframe operating systems have had the prefetch and caching features for many years. They are called LLA, Library Look Aside, and VLF, the Virtual Lookaside Facility. This doesn;t include Hyperspaces and Dataspaces which allow caching of application data for memory to memory data transfer.

jhal · #12 02-03-2007, 01:09 AM

I don't plan on upgrading to Vista anytime soon, mainly because of DRM (Digital Rights Managment). This form of antipiracy software apparently makes your computer pretty much worthless for even music and movies that you PAY FOR!! I am not talking about illegal downloading, but legitimate copies that you have bought. You can only play your media on "approved devices", you can't copy it from computer to computer. It also disables certain outputs such as a soundcard's coax or optical digital output to prevent copying media marked with copy protection (which also means, you can't listen using a stereo hooked up to said outputs). This DRM also uses up system resources and degrades performance with both audio and video. All you have to do is Google "DRM vista" and you will have more info than you want. When my computer dies, I will probably switch OS's or install XP into a new machine. Microsoft says it will support XP for at least a few more years, whether or not they keep that promise remains to be seen.

TheDon · #13 02-03-2007, 08:35 AM

mac still supports their classic OS's.. I know they do OS 9.1

Death to DRM

MTI · #14 02-03-2007, 08:17 PM

That "new technology" sure sounds a lot like what old PC-DOS users used to do with "ram drives."

Bill Wood · #15 02-03-2007, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justinwrock

Indeed these technologies are cool.... But when you have 4 gigs of memory and 2 gigs of it is occupied by vista, you start to worry...

My understanding is that Vista is designed to use ALL of your RAM all the time. That's why applications load so fast because they are cached in RAM. It dynamically frees up RAM as needed.