Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!sdyer@bbn-unix From: sdyer@bbn-unix@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro.cpm Subject: Re: RAM disks with UNIX Message-ID: <1886@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Mon, 6-Jun-83 14:22:00 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1886 Posted: Mon Jun 6 14:22:00 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 13-Jun-83 09:30:24 EDT Lines: 13 From: Steve DyerIt's quite possible to use a RAM disk as a root (or swap) device for UNIX-- in fact, that's a quite popular way to bootstrap up a kernel before working disk hardware is available. Just write a software device driver which accesses a RAM partition instead of the disk. Trouble is, UNIX likes LARGE disks, so unless you have lots of RAM available, it doesn't buy one much. (I mean, it's OK for bootstrap purposes, but lousy for a production system.) And the amounts of RAM we're talking about (2-20mb) are still economically infeasible for most small systems, though this should change soon. Steve Dyer sdyer@bbn-unix