March 14, 2006

By Jimmy Daniels

Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

We all know that accessing data from memory or flash is faster than it is accessing it on hard drives, so what happens when you combine the two? Microsoft wants hard drive manufacturers to use large flash memory caches, but this adds cost and will take time to convert to that technology. Intel’s Robson flash cache technology is looking to speed data access while not adding too much to the cost of a hard drive, they propose locating the flash memory cache on the motherboard, or possibly another type of memory socket.

Synthetic benchmarks are all well and good, but Intel also demonstrated how Robson might perform in a real-world scenario. During the Digital Home Keynote, two gamers loaded up Battlefield 2. Both were systems equipped with Pentium 955 Extreme Edition CPUs and ATI CrossFire X1900s. One system implemented Robson, the other was stock.

The system with Robson booted Battlefield 2 and loaded the level nearly 30 seconds ahead of the standard system. While it’s not quite the competitive advantage for gamers that the demo suggested, imagine working with large Photoshop files, 3ds max or other applications with large memory footprints that swap a lot of data to disk. Or imagine substantially faster boot up into the operating system. All of these seem pretty attractive.

Intel suggested that systems or boards with Robson technology would be available at roughly the same time as their next-generation CPU, Conroe. If so, then it’s likely that Conroe systems with Robson technology added in will appear even faster than the simple addition of a new, faster processor. So users will get faster processors, lower power usage, and much speedier response times. That’s good for all of us. Source: Extremetech.

We Say: This seems like a good temporary fix, but it’s probably about time hard drive technology is replaced, as it has not scaled like processors, etc. This can certainly save power, and could make coming out of hibernate mode appear instantaneous, but all I know, is we need faster access times!