this might be old news, so sorry if it is, but an article i was reading said that the PPC 970fx is capable of handling computers with 4TB RAM. yes, you read that correctly. imagine the possibilities!
The government just ordered a 4 TB ram disk for something...I read an article about it a while back. It was posted here on AI, but after a few minutes of fruitless searching...I have found nothing.
Oh well...I wonder if they would let me barrow it for the G5 that I don't have?
I know a guy who has 8GB in his dual 2GHz. He said that "it's superfluous after 4GB," but let's just say he gets a rather riduculous apple hardware discount.
I know of photoshop users who could use a big RAM disk as scratch and still benefit from having a ton of RAM available for operations. It gives you the flexibility to work at 600dpi in tabloid sized spreads or even bigger without any sort of lag.
It also wouldn't hurt for 3D rendering, but for the same price you could get a bunch of cheap PCs and just render on those.
this might be old news, so sorry if it is, but an article i was reading said that the PPC 970fx is capable of handling computers with 4TB RAM. yes, you read that correctly. imagine the possibilities!
Yeah, but does it say anything about limitations of the system controller (northbridge) that actually accesses the memory? Unless your sys controller can also support 4TB, it won't do you much good.
I can't think of anything that would *need more then 2Gigs, by today's standards.
Also understand to have 4TB of ram in your setup, that would take quite the chunk out of your wallet.
I've seen Unigraphics models blow past the 4GB barrier (when including the OS overhead). The only reason we found out about the size of the files was that at my work, we were transitioning from HP Unix workstations to Win 2K workstations, and the W2K workstations were RAM limited. Our designers were rather upset when their models wouldn't work anymore without modifications. FWIW
Had to add this:
Tomb - excellent point, just because the processor can address a large amount of RAM doesn't mean the controller can. You covered it before I finished the thread.
IIRC the limit on the current G5 is 8GB, not sure if it is physical design limit or controller limit ... so I guess someone has maxxed out a G5, according to an earlier post
IIRC the limit on the current G5 is 8GB, not sure if it is physical design limit or controller limit ... so I guess someone has maxxed out a G5, according to an earlier post
That's because at the time they were released, each of their 8 RAM slots could take a 1 GB DIMM. Apple's official maximum RAM for any computer is the maximum amount it could take when it first came out. Even though 2 GB DIMMs are now available, the current G5 will always have an official limit of 8 GB. But if you had the money, you'd be able to put 16 GB of RAM in one, by using 8x2GB DIMMs.
If it really is the same then I'll take the 8GB of RAM in a Mac anyday!
Sorry, but I never have owned a PC no matter what the reason (business or personal) for 24 years now. Used 'em, hate 'em.
Well, the cluster of cheap PC would be faster for rendering without a doubt. Dual G5 versus, say, 8 P4's, plus you get to have a G5 with less RAM. Anyway, the PC's are just running in slave mode and you never even have to deal with them.
The 745x series of G4s can address up to 64 GB. The "4 GB Barrier" that is often mentioned is an issue with the x86 architecture.
This is only partly true. The 745x architecture had enough pins to adress more than 2^32 bit RAM (4GB), however this is true for other 32 bit architectures. Pointer size on the 745x is 32 bit like on x86 - so adressing more than the magical 4GB requires nasty tricks like bank switching and segmenting processes where each process can have 4GB max.
The 970 on the other hand is capable to adress 4TB linearly - that's 64 bit for you.
so do exotic sports cars, that doesnt stop guys with small...never mind
Don't go there. People who buy exotics are often just serious speed freaks. The guys that buy Ferraris without heaters and radios aren't compensating for anything.
The government just ordered a 4 TB ram disk for something...I read an article about it a while back. It was posted here on AI, but after a few minutes of fruitless searching...I have found nothing.
I doubt a 4TB ram disk will be put into a single machine (G5 or Xserve etc) a cluster yes or some mainframe 32CPU+ behemoth.
Buy the time we can afford 4TB in our normal machines we will be able to put in alot more.
If a 64bit machine can address 18 pentabytes (or whatever) then isn't the maximum amount of memory you could have in the machine if the surrounding bus etc could support it?
Despite that.
Imagine the awesome movies/song libary you could have on your G5 with a 4TB ram disk. And the speed.
Well, I would use 8GB of memory today (I have 4.5GB) at the moment if the OS was 64bits, but it is not. So the most I can do (given the kind or processing I do) is to use 2 processes, each running with 2GB of memory, and have 512MB for anything else that has to run so I do not swap.
Hopefully, we will soon have an OS based on Darwin64 and 2GB DIMMs and I will be able to load up my machine to 16GB of RAM !
Comments
I wonder if anyone's maxed out the RAM in their G5 yet.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
The 745x series of G4s can address up to 64 GB. The "4 GB Barrier" that is often mentioned is an issue with the x86 architecture.
i'm talking about 4TB though.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
i'm talking about 4TB though.
I know, it's awesome. I was just pointing out that even the G4's RAM limit is far above what any normal user has.
Also understand to have 4TB of ram in your setup, that would take quite the chunk out of your wallet.
Oh well...I wonder if they would let me barrow it for the G5 that I don't have?
I know of photoshop users who could use a big RAM disk as scratch and still benefit from having a ton of RAM available for operations. It gives you the flexibility to work at 600dpi in tabloid sized spreads or even bigger without any sort of lag.
It also wouldn't hurt for 3D rendering, but for the same price you could get a bunch of cheap PCs and just render on those.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
this might be old news, so sorry if it is, but an article i was reading said that the PPC 970fx is capable of handling computers with 4TB RAM. yes, you read that correctly. imagine the possibilities!
Yeah, but does it say anything about limitations of the system controller (northbridge) that actually accesses the memory? Unless your sys controller can also support 4TB, it won't do you much good.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
It also wouldn't hurt for 3D rendering, but for the same price you could get a bunch of cheap PCs and just render on those.
If it really is the same then I'll take the 8GB of RAM in a Mac anyday!
Sorry, but I never have owned a PC no matter what the reason (business or personal) for 24 years now. Used 'em, hate 'em.
Originally posted by \\/\\/ickes
I can't think of anything that would *need more then 2Gigs, by today's standards.
Also understand to have 4TB of ram in your setup, that would take quite the chunk out of your wallet.
I've seen Unigraphics models blow past the 4GB barrier (when including the OS overhead). The only reason we found out about the size of the files was that at my work, we were transitioning from HP Unix workstations to Win 2K workstations, and the W2K workstations were RAM limited. Our designers were rather upset when their models wouldn't work anymore without modifications. FWIW
Had to add this:
Tomb - excellent point, just because the processor can address a large amount of RAM doesn't mean the controller can. You covered it before I finished the thread.
IIRC the limit on the current G5 is 8GB, not sure if it is physical design limit or controller limit ... so I guess someone has maxxed out a G5, according to an earlier post
Originally posted by MacJedai
IIRC the limit on the current G5 is 8GB, not sure if it is physical design limit or controller limit ... so I guess someone has maxxed out a G5, according to an earlier post
That's because at the time they were released, each of their 8 RAM slots could take a 1 GB DIMM. Apple's official maximum RAM for any computer is the maximum amount it could take when it first came out. Even though 2 GB DIMMs are now available, the current G5 will always have an official limit of 8 GB. But if you had the money, you'd be able to put 16 GB of RAM in one, by using 8x2GB DIMMs.
Originally posted by johnq
If it really is the same then I'll take the 8GB of RAM in a Mac anyday!
Sorry, but I never have owned a PC no matter what the reason (business or personal) for 24 years now. Used 'em, hate 'em.
Well, the cluster of cheap PC would be faster for rendering without a doubt. Dual G5 versus, say, 8 P4's, plus you get to have a G5 with less RAM. Anyway, the PC's are just running in slave mode and you never even have to deal with them.
Originally posted by \\/\\/ickes
I can't think of anything that would *need more then 2Gigs, by today's standards.
Also understand to have 4TB of ram in your setup, that would take quite the chunk out of your wallet.
so do exotic sports cars, that doesnt stop guys with small...never mind
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
The 745x series of G4s can address up to 64 GB. The "4 GB Barrier" that is often mentioned is an issue with the x86 architecture.
This is only partly true. The 745x architecture had enough pins to adress more than 2^32 bit RAM (4GB), however this is true for other 32 bit architectures. Pointer size on the 745x is 32 bit like on x86 - so adressing more than the magical 4GB requires nasty tricks like bank switching and segmenting processes where each process can have 4GB max.
The 970 on the other hand is capable to adress 4TB linearly - that's 64 bit for you.
Originally posted by a_greer
so do exotic sports cars, that doesnt stop guys with small...never mind
Don't go there. People who buy exotics are often just serious speed freaks. The guys that buy Ferraris without heaters and radios aren't compensating for anything.
Originally posted by DMBand0026
The government just ordered a 4 TB ram disk for something...I read an article about it a while back. It was posted here on AI, but after a few minutes of fruitless searching...I have found nothing.
Fruitless? Let me offer you an, um... Apple...
Linkie-Doo
Buy the time we can afford 4TB in our normal machines we will be able to put in alot more.
If a 64bit machine can address 18 pentabytes (or whatever) then isn't the maximum amount of memory you could have in the machine if the surrounding bus etc could support it?
Despite that.
Imagine the awesome movies/song libary you could have on your G5 with a 4TB ram disk. And the speed.
Dobby.
Hopefully, we will soon have an OS based on Darwin64 and 2GB DIMMs and I will be able to load up my machine to 16GB of RAM !