Gigabyte Technology and official South African distributor Rectron have introduced the Gigabyte i-RAM, one of the world`s fastest storage devices now available to digital graphics designers and PC enthusiasts.
i-RAM was designed as a performance enhancing component that houses up to 4 DDR RAM modules, has no mechanical or moving parts and employs a custom Gigabyte controller that enables the operating system to see it as a regular Serial ATA drive.
Users who frequently use 3D rendering and video editing applications often suffer from sluggish data access times associated with magnetic hard disk drives. Despite advances such as virtual RAM disk technology, the PC industry has not found a viable solution that is free of critical side effects such as losing data when the system shuts down.
With this in mind Gigabyte`s R&D engineers recognised the potential behind solid-state storage technology, and designed i-RAM with two stand-by power sources that cater for the needs of professional or recreational power users alike.
Through Gigabyte`s custom intelligent controller, i-RAM accesses data at close to 1.5Gb/s. i-RAM is outfitted with four 184-pin DIMM slots that support up to 4GB of un-buffered memory. Power is provided through the PCI slot allowing for stand-by power when the system is shut down.
Furthermore, a battery provides backup power in case of a main power outage or other power interruptions on the i-RAM module, and is automatically re-charged when the system receives power again.
"Without the mechanical elements of traditional hard disks, i-RAM clearly demonstrates the benefits of using DRAM for massive data access applications such as video/audio capture and editing, and 3D graphics design applications," says Michael Hann, Gigabyte product manager at Rectron.
Share
Editorial contacts