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Apparently, the Xbox's hard disk is only going to be only 8MB, which, compared to PS2's 40MB, seems pretty paltry.
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I know you wouldnt have things like Mp3's or Tv episodes on the HDD, unless you bought them and it was ok to do so. With the way the times is you will order Mp3's rather than buy CD's from the shop. 40Gb would allow you to store saves, get extra levels for games and not have to worry about space.
Yeah, well maybe it's a dream! Ram is coming down all the time, but for now we would have to put up with 64mb or 128mb upgrades as a maximum for consoles...would be nice though...
1GB of RAM!?!?!?!?
Wouldnt that be slightly expensive?
Wouldnt that be slightly expensive?
ROM is quicker than ram, but that's only because it only has a one way signal to cope with.
The one major problem with RAM is that once the power is taken from it then you've lost the contents. This would be fine in a one off game but hopeless for downloads or storing games from the net.
TO get around the problem of loading a whole game into memory, you could have a caching system, where the game is loaded bit by bit (as per normal) but two levels are loaded at once into one section of memory and another two sections are loaded into the other section, or all possible exits in a Quake/Res evil style game, meaning that the next two parts can load while you are playing the first part, saving RAM and meaning no slowdown.
The N64 RAM pack was a good idea, bar the fact that Nintendo should have included it from the start, rather than sell it for a costly price later on. Perhaps a memory card style system, with 1GB more ram on a single card, could be invented?
The one major problem with RAM is that once the power is taken from it then you've lost the contents. This would be fine in a one off game but hopeless for downloads or storing games from the net.
TO get around the problem of loading a whole game into memory, you could have a caching system, where the game is loaded bit by bit (as per normal) but two levels are loaded at once into one section of memory and another two sections are loaded into the other section, or all possible exits in a Quake/Res evil style game, meaning that the next two parts can load while you are playing the first part, saving RAM and meaning no slowdown.
The N64 RAM pack was a good idea, bar the fact that Nintendo should have included it from the start, rather than sell it for a costly price later on. Perhaps a memory card style system, with 1GB more ram on a single card, could be invented?
Your Honour wrote:
> I imagine it would be quicker than loading from a cartridge
Not sure... I think ROM is quicker than RAM. Wouldn't swear to it though.
> I imagine it would be quicker than loading from a cartridge
Not sure... I think ROM is quicker than RAM. Wouldn't swear to it though.
Increase loading times, yeah!
But when it has finished loading initially, there would be now delay between levels. I imagine it would be quicker than loading from a cartridge, but they seem damn quick already!
But when it has finished loading initially, there would be now delay between levels. I imagine it would be quicker than loading from a cartridge, but they seem damn quick already!
That would be ideal, but 4Gb+ of RAM (for DVD titles)?
It would certainly increase loading time! :-
It would certainly increase loading time! :-
True, but surely the ideal would be to load all of the game data into RAM?
I know this isnt realistic due to the price of RAM, but that must be the ideal. Whatever OS you have it would still speed up data transfer as RAM is much quicker than a HDD.
I know this isnt realistic due to the price of RAM, but that must be the ideal. Whatever OS you have it would still speed up data transfer as RAM is much quicker than a HDD.
Your Honour wrote:
> I would have thought the overal performance
> of the PS2 could be improved if they put in 128MB RAM insstead of
> the 16 or 32 that it has now.
That all depends on the OS. Windows is highly inefficient and notoriously memory hungry, and also leaks all over the place, which is why you eventually system resources always mysteriously disappear, and you need to reboot.
The Amiga OS had pretty much the same functionality, including Plug & Pray (sorry, Play) - albeit called AutoConfig (and it actually worked...) about 10 years before Microsoft even thought abuot it. And it ran from a 512K ROM, with extra files on a 1Mb floppy.
The fact that PS2 - in fact, most consoles - can operate so quickly within such limited RAM, is most likely due to the fact that they have a compact, efficient, well-written and highly effective OS.
> I would have thought the overal performance
> of the PS2 could be improved if they put in 128MB RAM insstead of
> the 16 or 32 that it has now.
That all depends on the OS. Windows is highly inefficient and notoriously memory hungry, and also leaks all over the place, which is why you eventually system resources always mysteriously disappear, and you need to reboot.
The Amiga OS had pretty much the same functionality, including Plug & Pray (sorry, Play) - albeit called AutoConfig (and it actually worked...) about 10 years before Microsoft even thought abuot it. And it ran from a 512K ROM, with extra files on a 1Mb floppy.
The fact that PS2 - in fact, most consoles - can operate so quickly within such limited RAM, is most likely due to the fact that they have a compact, efficient, well-written and highly effective OS.
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