Turbo Memory

[John Summerfield]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Claude Jones wrote:
>> The notebook was an Asus 2GS - I asked here because I figure if anyone might 
>> be working on utilizing this new technology in Linux, it might be someone 
>> associated with Fedora. The reference to Turbo Memory in the Asus ad led me 
>> to find the same page already, that you posted above. I also downloaded the 
>> PDF data sheet. Apparently, the new technology relies on a software component 
>> (driver?) only available in Vista. There's nowhere any mention of making the 
>> technology available in XP. It is being described as a new 'key system 
>> component' on a par with ram, cpu, etc... I did try clicking on the contact 
>> us button, but it leads to more and more pages, and there wasn't time in my 
>> schedule to figure out which contact link would be the most appropriate. 
>> Maybe I'll give it another go later...
>>
> It sounds like they are using the flash memory as swap. I have seen

Cache, not swap. Cache in drive controllers has been around since the 
early 80s that I know about, just not on intellish toys. Disk 
controllers on IBM mainframes were computers in their own right (rumours 
abounded that used S/370-158s, at one time near top mainframes, got 
reused as disk controllers), so they handled the cache.


> flash memory that was designed to plug into the motherboard USB
> header that was advertised to do the same thing in Vista. If this is
> what they are doing, then implementing it in Linux should be a
> matter of making it a swap partition/file.

USB flash is slow. Notebook drives in USB2 enclosures are faster than 
USB2 flash drives.


> 
> If you get the motherboard,see if it detects it as a USB memory
> drive. If so, and if you are not dual booting, it would be just a
> matter of creating a swap partition, (Or making the entire device
> one big swap device.) and add a fstab entry for it. You would want
> to give it a label, and use that in place of a device name. You
> could also do this with a standard "pen" drive. I am not sure about
> the life of the device, but it might be fun to try it with a flash
> drive you don't mind loosing.

It's unlikely to be seen through the USB infrastructure. I think it more 
likely it's seen as "part of the drive," or maybe as a PCI{,-X} device, 
a PC version if the disk controllers I mentioned above.


-- 

Cheers
John

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