IBM outside the Box

[Merlin]

IBM is pitching the invention as a technology that could provide a cheaper and more flexible way to temporarily upgrade the available memory (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32446/135/#) in computing systems ranging from PDAs to servers. According to the description of the patent, the technology includes three separate parts - a connector, a container to hold RAM as well as a cable that couples the connector to the container.

IBM says that the connector can be inserted into a DRAM slot just like a common memory module, allowing the memory installed in the external box to be addressed by the motherboard as another bank or DRAM. When there is no external RAM (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32446/135/#) module plugged in, no memory is recognized by the motherboard's memory addressing unit, the patent claims.
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32446/135/

Merlin:cool:

[Rob Williams]

I have absolutely no idea what good this is supposed to do. That, or I am completely overlooking the point of the entire invention. It sounds like they are just adding a riser to the DIMM slot. I can't see how anything is different from plugging in a stick of RAM and hauling it out when you are done.

Who really needs to temporarily upgrade their RAM? Sounds like a pain in the ass overall. If you have the ram, install it.

[drewd]

Holy cow, that looks like a signal integrity engineer's worst nightmare. I can only imagine just how hard it would be to get any kind of useful signal from the memory controller to the box and back again! And I wonder how they think that the computer will manage to synchronize the signals if one data bus is 4 inches long and the other is two feet long?

I'm not saying that it can't be done, but I'm glad that I'm not working on it!

[DarkSynergy]

Well, I know this... if anyone can pull something like this off, it would be IBM.