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How DRAM changed the world

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Re: How DRAM changed the world

#51

Post by exe34 »

emptiestplace wrote: post #22
gregmac wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am confused by this comment. You said "RAM" (contrast to "DRAM" in the article title) but I think you are talking about DRAM sticks? But those have not gone away (other than with some laptops where it's soldered on and not upgradable). Going from 8MB to 32MB in the 90s is still comparable to going from 8GB to 32GB today. One difference is just that the price isn't dropping at the same rate anymore [1], so it doesn'…

> Going from 8MB to 32MB in the 90s is still comparable to going from 8GB to 32GB today. This statement makes it difficult to believe you were there.

Nowadays electron apps will just baloon and take up the slack. Back in the days, it meant you could run 4x more stuff or handle bigger files/models with less thrashing of your very slow hdd.

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#52

Post by bloedsinnig »

neom wrote: post #3

I miss RAM. I feel like if you lived through that 90s RAM frenzy, you probably miss RAM too. It was crazy how quickly we move through SDRAM/DDR, prices dropped and you could make real increases in performance year over year for not much money. I'm sure some of it was the software being able to capture the hw improvements, but that certainly was my fav period in tech so far.

I started late but i rememeber when i upgraded my system with an additional 64mb stick, i was able to reduce the GTA 3 Loadtime between one island to another from 20 seconds to 1.

And at that time i also learned how critical it was to check your ram for errors. I reinstalled win98 and windows 2000 so often until i figured this out.

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#53

Post by HPsquared »

Ekaros wrote: post #37
CalRobert wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so?

Resolutions for video might be good comparison. SD to HD(or 720p) is very nice jump. HD to 4k some benefit. 4k to 8k... Well I suppose there is things. The starting to point really does matter. Resolutions are actually good example of things at low end(today) scale. 1920x1080 * 24 bits = 6220800 bytes. So 6 megs. Just to store 16 million colour screen state.

4K to 8K (and for that matter 30fps to 60fps+) is REALLY noticeable in VR video.

Normal video, not so much.

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#54

Post by bloedsinnig »

metta2uall wrote: post #9

"8K video recording" - does anyone really need this? Seems like for negligible gain in quality people are pushed to sacrifice their storage & battery, and so upgrade their hardware sooner...

Yes why not?

Different use cases exist:

Record 8k text and you could zoom in and read things. Record 8k and crop withot quality loss or 'zoom' in

Does everyone need this? Probably not but we are on hn not at a coffee party

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#55

Post by bloedsinnig »

aidenn0 wrote: post #28
metta2uall wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think 4k is also too much in the vast majority of cases..

It's insufficient for large theaters and barely sufficient for medium theaters. 1080p is plenty for most home theaters (though with the so-so quality of streaming, I wonder to what degree macroblocks are the new pixels)

1080p looks different to 4k. Just because its 'plenty' doesn't mean 4k doesn't matter.

And we are at 2024, i own a 4k lg oled display now for years. Why not leverage it? Just because 1080p is 'plenty'?

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#56

Post by [deleted] »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #41
szundi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's happening, Windows gets slower every year to adapt to SSDs.

tinfoil hat on. I think Microsoft is making windows slow to prepare people for when they move everything on your computer to their cloud. tinfoil hat off.

[deleted]

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#57

Post by HPsquared »

metta2uall wrote: post #9

"8K video recording" - does anyone really need this? Seems like for negligible gain in quality people are pushed to sacrifice their storage & battery, and so upgrade their hardware sooner...

8K is important for VR video; otherwise, not so much. There's a really noticeable step up from 4K in that area.

On a large TV though , it's probably an improvement over 4K for sports where you need to track a small item moving fast.

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#58

Post by bregma »

rob74 wrote: post #48
tomnipotent wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most RAM found in consumer PC's during the 90s was still DRAM, including SDRAM, EDO, and Rambus. I believe OP is just being nostalgic over the period of time when RAM upgrades were very a exciting thing, as hardware was changing very quickly in that era and each year felt considerably more capable than the prior.

In fact, I'd venture as far as to say that all memory in personal and/or "home" computers, starting with the earliest generation (Apple I & Co), has always been some variation of DRAM - with the possible exception of the external cache memory chips used by some CPUs (e.g. 486, Pentium IIRC).

My first "home" computer (a home-built COSMAC Elf) had 256 bytes of static RAM (in two DIPs). No DRAM at all. I don't think Radio Shack even sold DRAM.

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#59

Post by cesarb »

vbezhenar wrote: post #16
malfist wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that contrast with the increase cas latency in real world terms? (Actually asking, not being combative, I don't know)

Last time I checked, DDR5 and DDR4 latency was basically the same. Very little progress there. May be with integrating DRAM and CPU on the same package, some latency wins will be available just because wires will be shorter, but nothing groundbreaking.

There's another factor, which is the number of independent channels; DDR5 doubles the number of channels per memory stick. This gets more important as CPUs get more and more cores.

Re: How DRAM changed the world

#60

Post by cubefox »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #2

Dennard scaling for SRAM has certainly halted, as demonstrated by TSMC’s 3nm process vs 5 nm. What’s the likely ETA for DRAM?

> Dennard scaling for SRAM has certainly halted, as demonstrated by TSMC’s 3nm process vs 5 nm.

I don't think the latter (SRAM capacity remaining the same per area?) has anything to do with Dennard scaling.

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