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48-520: The Radio-86RK is the successor of earlier build-it-yourself computer of the same designers, the Micro-80 , and has limited compatibility with it. Its description was also published in a series of articles in the Radio magazine in the early 1980s. But its complex design, consisting of several modules and containing about 200 chips, lack of printed circuit board drawings and most importantly lack of chips on sale made

96-568: A composite video input as a display. As most Soviet TVs of the time did not have video inputs, it was necessary to install a special module or modify the TV's electronics to implement it. The approximate cost of all required components was about 260 rubles . The circuitry of the Radio-86RK contains only 29 chips and was relatively easy to assemble. However, finding the chips to buy was difficult, as they were scarce and sold in small volumes in major cities of

144-445: A 1K×1 organization (later the RAM was increased by another 8 KB). Initially, there was no ROM at all, and when the computer was turned on cold (as in one of the first American microcomputers Altair 8800 of 1975), it was necessary to manually enter the program for loading the block from punched tape with toggle switches. When i2708 chips (UV-ROM 1K×8) became available some time after the computer

192-541: A RAM drive is generally orders of magnitude faster than other forms of digital storage, such as SSD , tape , optical , hard disk , and floppy drives. This performance gain is due to multiple factors, including access time, maximum throughput , and file system characteristics. File access time is greatly reduced since a RAM drive is solid state (no moving parts). A physical hard drive, optical (e.g, CD-ROM , DVD , and Blu-ray ) or other media (e.g. magnetic bubble , acoustic storage , magnetic tape ) must move

240-587: A RAM drive named /RAM . IBM added a RAM drive named VDISK.SYS to PC DOS (version 3.0) in August 1984, which was the first DOS component to use extended memory . VDISK.SYS was not available in Microsoft 's MS-DOS as it, unlike most components of early versions of PC DOS, was written by IBM. Microsoft included the similar program RAMDRIVE.SYS in MS-DOS 3.2 (released in 1986), which could also use expanded memory . It

288-410: A computer's software is treating as if the memory were a disk drive ( secondary storage ). RAM drives provide high-performance temporary storage for demanding tasks and protect non-volatile storage devices from wearing down, since RAM is not prone to wear from writing, unlike non-volatile flash memory . It is sometimes referred to as a virtual RAM drive or software RAM drive to distinguish it from

336-516: A disk drive was much faster than the disk drives. especially before hard drives were readily available on such machines. The Silicon Disk was launched in 1980, initially for the CP/M operating system and later for MS-DOS . The 128kB Atari 130XE (with DOS 2.5) and Commodore 128 natively support RAM drives, as does ProDOS for the Apple II . On systems with 128kB or more of RAM, ProDOS automatically creates

384-413: A few specialized "ultra-lightweight" Linux distributions which are designed to boot from removable media and stored in a ramdisk for the entire session. There have been RAM drives which use DRAM memory that is exclusively dedicated to function as an extremely low latency storage device. This memory is isolated from the processor and not directly accessible in the same manner as normal system memory. Some of

432-571: A full-fledged household computer was obtained. After bringing it into a presentable form, it was shown to the Deputy Minister of the Radio Industry N.V. Gorshkov, but did not meet his understanding regarding the implementation of the development. The idea to build a computer on their own interested many radio amateurs. Letters began to come to the editors of the Radio magazine with requests to simplify

480-617: A hardware RAM drive that uses separate hardware containing RAM, which is a type of battery-backed solid-state drive . Historically primary storage based mass storage devices were conceived to bridge the performance gap between internal memory and secondary storage devices. In the advent of solid-state devices this advantage lost most of its appeal. However, solid-state devices do suffer from wear from frequent writing. Primary memory writes do not so or in far lesser effect. So RAM devices do offer an advantage to store frequently changing data, like temporary or cached information. The performance of

528-404: A number of models: The technical capabilities of the Radio-86RK were very modest. It did not have a graphics mode. The RAM expansion was impossible without serious modifications and loss of compatibility. As the volume of production of home computers was small, and the demand for them kept increasing, the editorial board decided to publish a new design for the build-it-yourself computer. Although

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576-506: A pair of Serial ATA ports, allowing it to function as a single drive or masquerade as a pair of drives that can easily be split into an even faster RAID 0 array." In 2009, Acard Technology produced the ACARD ANS-9010BA 5.25 Dynamic SSD SATA-II RAM Disk, max 64GB. It uses a single SATA-II port. Both variants are equipped with one or more CompactFlash card interface located in the front panel, allowing non-volatile data being stored on

624-467: A partition on a physical hard drive rather than accessing the data bus normally used for secondary storage. Though RAM drives can often be supported directly in the operating system via special mechanisms in the OS kernel , it is generally simpler to access a RAM drive through a virtual device driver. This makes the non-disk nature of RAM drives invisible to both the OS and applications. Usually no battery backup

672-588: A precedent in getting the attention of hobbyists for DIY computers, and later other DIY computers were published by Radio and other DIY magazines. The creation of the Micro-80 prototype began in 1978, when a package from the Kiev NPO Kristall arrived at the Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building (MIEM) by mistake. There were microcircuits in that package. Soon, MIEM specialists figured out that this

720-468: A reliable backup. In 2009, DDRdrive, LLC produced the DDRDrive X1, which claims to be the fastest solid state drive in the world. The drive is a primary 4GB DDR dedicated RAM drive for regular use, which can back up to and recall from a 4GB SLC NAND drive. The intended market is for keeping and recording log files . If there is a power loss the data can be saved to an internal 4GB ssd in 60 seconds, via

768-615: A selling feature. Later, the ASDG RRD was made available as shareware carrying a suggested donation of 10 dollars. The shareware version appeared on Fred Fish Disks 58 and 241. AmigaOS itself would gain a Recoverable Ram Disk (called "RAD") in version 1.3. Many Unix and Unix-like systems provide some form of RAM drive functionality, such as /dev/ram on Linux , or md(4) on FreeBSD . RAM drives are particularly useful in high-performance, low-resource applications for which Unix-like operating systems are sometimes configured. There are also

816-401: A single large connector for power, keyboard, tape recorder and even video output. Hence it was easy to disconnect the board and work on both sides of it outside the case. Next, the firmware has to be written in two erasable ROM chips using a chip programmer . Also a power supply unit, a keyboard and a computer case were to be made. The computer used a normal domestic TV set connected to

864-499: Is needed due to the temporary nature of the information stored in the RAM drive, but an uninterruptible power supply can keep the system running during a short power outage. Some RAM drives use a compressed file system such as cramfs to allow compressed data to be accessed on the fly, without decompressing it first. This is convenient because RAM drives are often small due to the higher price per byte than conventional hard drive storage. The first software RAM drive for microcomputers

912-446: Is the speed of the actual mechanics of the drive motors, heads, or eyes. Third, the file system in use, such as NTFS , HFS , UFS , ext2, etc., uses extra accesses, reads and writes to the drive, which although small, can add up quickly, especially in the event of many small files vs. few larger files (temporary internet folders, web caches, etc.). Because the storage is in RAM, it is volatile memory , which means it will be lost in

960-535: The BASIC interpreter: an adapted version of Micro-80 BASIC and a version specially developed for the Radio-86RK featuring enhanced editing capabilities, new functions, and other improvements. Other software published in the magazine included assembler , debugger , disassembler , text editor , voice recorder, music editing system. Also, a lot of BASIC programs were published, including calculations for electronic circuits design and games. Another way of obtaining software

1008-672: The GC-RAMDISK , max 8GB, which was the second generation creation for the i-RAM. It has a maximum of 8 GB capacity, twice that of the i-RAM. It used the SATA-II port, again twice that of the i-RAM. One of its best selling points is that it can be used as a boot device. In 2007, ACard Technology produced the ANS-9010 Serial ATA RAM disk, max 64 GB. Quote from the tech report: The ANS-9010 "which has eight DDR2 DIMM slots and support for up to 8 GB of memory per slot. The ANS-9010 also features

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1056-423: The Radio magazine distributed programs for the Radio-86RK in the form of hexadecimal dumps . After entering the program dump into the computer's memory, it could be saved to the tape. It was easy to make a mistake when typing in large dumps, so the magazine published checksums along with the dumps. It was necessary to execute "O" monitor directive to calculate the checksum. The magazine published two versions of

1104-479: The Radio magazine had published new firmware for Microsha that improved software compatibility. Following magazine publication, a number of factories started industrial production of several home computer models using the Radio-86RK design. Not all models were fully compatible with Radio-86RK and included different improvements, such as expanded memory size, additional character sets, rudimentary color support. The list of models includes: Volume of production for

1152-548: The USSR . It was particularly difficult to find the KR580VG75 video chip, which was produced only in small quantities. This led to the development of a replacement video circuit which contained 19 chips on a separate board, and was similar to the display module of the Micro-80 computer. The editorial board of Radio magazine received a large amount of mail in response to the publication. In almost every letter, readers noted how difficult it

1200-462: The i-RAM , max 4 GB, which functioned essentially identically to the Rocket Drive, except upgraded to use the newer DDR memory technology, though also limited to a maximum of 4 GB capacity. For both of these devices, the dynamic RAM requires continuous power to retain data; when power is lost, the data fades away. For the Rocket Drive, there was a connector for an external power supply separate from

1248-560: The RAM drive to be copied on the CompactFlash card in case of power failure and low backup battery. Two pushbuttons located on the front panel allows the user to manually backup / restore data on the RAM drive. The CompactFlash card itself is not accessible to the user by normal means as the CF card is solely intended for RAM backup and restoration. The CF card's capacity has to meet / exceed the RAM module's total capacity in order to effectively work as

1296-407: The assembly of the computer hard to accomplish. Micro-80 computers were assembled by only a few enthusiasts. To assemble the computer, it was required to acquire the necessary electronic components , to make two printed circuit boards and mount all components on them. It was mostly a single board computer, as the second board served only as the base to mount the keyboard keys. The main board used

1344-420: The authors had given that name to the original computer, but the editorial board has changed the name to Radio-86RK. Eventually, the name Microsha was given to the industrially produced version of Radio-86RK. Microsha preparation for serial production went in parallel with Radio-86RK articles publication. The changes authors made to the design and firmware made Microsha incompatible with Radio-86RK. In 1989,

1392-625: The computer, and the option for an external battery to retain data during a power failure. The i-RAM included a small battery directly on the expansion board, for 10-16 hours of protection. Both devices used the SATA 1.0 interface to transfer data from the dedicated RAM drive to the system. The SATA interface was a slow bottleneck that limited the maximum performance of both RAM drives, but these drives still provided exceptionally low data access latency and high sustained transfer speeds, compared to mechanical hard drives. In 2006, Gigabyte Technology produced

1440-439: The data stored on the RAM drive is created from data permanently stored elsewhere, for faster access , and is re-created on the RAM drive when the system reboots. Apart from the risk of data loss, the major limitation of RAM drives is capacity, which is constrained by the amount of installed RAM. Multi-terabyte SSD storage has become common, but RAM is still measured in gigabytes. RAM drives use normal system memory as if it were

1488-467: The design of the Micro-80 and, to facilitate assembly, develop printed circuit boards for it. Therefore, soon, already in 1986, the same authors published a much simpler Radio 86RK computer, containing only 29 microcircuits. This computer hardware article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . RAM drive A RAM drive (also called a RAM disk ) is a block of random-access memory ( primary storage or volatile memory ) that

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1536-600: The designers of the Radio-86RK had developed a new 16-bit computer, the Micro-16 (based on the K1810VM86 microprocessor, with a CGA -compatible graphics mode that was capable of running software for the CP/M-86 and MS-DOS ), the editorial board again opted for a computer based on the 8-bit processor KR580VM80. The main reason for this was the availability of electronic components for purchase and their cost. The publication of articles on

1584-439: The electrical circuitry of the controller but not the firmware. Radio-86RK owners were invited to buy the fully assembled controller or a kit along with two floppy disks containing external DOS commands, programming languages and text description of the operating system. The first industrially produced version of the Radio-86RK was the computer named Microsha (an abbreviation for the words Microcomputer and School ). Initially,

1632-423: The event of power loss, whether intentional (computer reboot or shutdown) or accidental (power failure or system crash). This is, in general, a weakness (the data must periodically be backed up to a persistent-storage medium to avoid loss), but is sometimes desirable: for example, when working with a decrypted copy of an encrypted file, or using the RAM drive to store the system's temporary files . In many cases,

1680-527: The feature through the life of Mac OS 9 . Mac OS X users can use the hdid , newfs (or newfs hfs ) and mount utilities to create, format and mount a RAM drive. A RAM drive innovation introduced in 1986 but made generally available in 1987 by Perry Kivolowitz for AmigaOS was the ability of the RAM drive to survive most crashes and reboots. Called the ASDG Recoverable Ram Disk, the device survived reboots by allocating memory dynamically in

1728-464: The first dedicated RAM drives were released in 1983-1985. An early example of a hardware RAM drive was introduced by Assimilation Process in 1986 for the Macintosh. Called the "Excalibur", it was an external 2MB RAM drive, and retailed for between $ 599 and $ 699 US. With the RAM capacity expandable in 1MB increments, its internal battery was said to be effective for between 6 and 8 hours, and, unusual for

1776-497: The information to a particular position before reading or writing can occur. RAM drives can access data with only the address, eliminating this latency . Second, the maximum throughput of a RAM drive is limited by the speed of the RAM, the data bus , and the CPU of the computer. Other forms of storage media are further limited by the speed of the storage bus, such as IDE (PATA), SATA , USB or FireWire . Compounding this limitation

1824-586: The new computer Orion-128 began in January 1990. Micro-80 The Micro-80 ( Russian : Микро-80 ) was the first do-it-yourself home computer in the Soviet Union . Schematics and information were published in the local DIY electronic magazine Radio in 1983. It was complex, using an KR580VM80A -based system (a clone of the Intel 8080 ) which contained about 200 ICs. This system gained low popularity, but set

1872-431: The reverse order of default memory allocation (a feature supported by the underlying OS) so as to reduce memory fragmentation. A "super-block" was written with a unique signature which could be located in memory upon reboot. The super-block, and all other RRD disk "blocks" maintained check sums to enable the invalidation of the disk if corruption was detected. At first, the ASDG RRD was locked to ASDG memory boards and used as

1920-519: The tape. The operating system has a minimalistic user interface with only seven commands; it also adds support for file operations to the BASIC interpreter. In October 1992, the Radio magazine and TOO Lianozovo company announced a floppy-disk controller for the Radio-86RK and the Microsha . The disk operating system (DOS) was stored in erasable ROM on the controller board. The Radio magazine published only

1968-652: The time, it was connected via the Macintosh floppy disk port. In 2002, Cenatek produced the Rocket Drive , max 4 GB, which had four DIMM slots for PC133 memory, with up to a maximum of four gigabytes of storage. At the time, common desktop computers used 64 to 128 megabytes of PC100 or PC133 memory. The one gigabyte PC133 modules (the largest available at the time) cost approximately $ 1,300 (equivalent to $ 2,202 in 2023). A fully outfitted Rocket Drive with four GB of storage would have cost $ 5,600 (equivalent to $ 9,486 in 2023). In 2005, Gigabyte Technology produced

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2016-491: The user after turning on the computer is a monitor contained in ROM. The monitor supports basic debugging functions, it allows viewing and modifying memory cells, loading and saving memory contents to the tape, entering and running programs in binary code. The monitor is also HAL : programs that access the hardware only by calling the monitor library support both 16Kb and 32 Kb RAM versions and often also Micro-80 predecessor. Initially,

2064-483: Was a domestic analogue of the i8080 microprocessor and peripheral controllers and decided to create their own PC. In 1979, the first sample of a microcomputer was launched. As in the first Western microcomputers, a terminal connected via a serial interface was used as a display device and keyboard, in this case the Videoton-340. There was also a punched tape reader FS-1500. 4 KB RAM was made on K565RU2 microcircuits with

2112-665: Was discontinued in Windows 7. DR-DOS and the DR family of multi-user operating systems also came with a RAM disk named VDISK.SYS. In Multiuser DOS , the RAM disk defaults to the drive letter M: (for memory drive). AmigaOS has had a built in RAM drive since the release of version 1.1 in 1985 and still has it in AmigaOS 4.1 (2010). Apple Computer added the functionality to the Apple Macintosh with System 7 's Memory control panel in 1991, and kept

2160-594: Was invented and written by Jerry Karlin in the UK in 1979/80. The software, known as the Silicon Disk System , was further developed into a commercial product and marketed by JK Systems Research which became Microcosm Research Ltd when the company was joined by Peter Cheesewright of Microcosm Ltd . The idea was to enable the early microcomputers to use more RAM than the CPU could directly address. Making bank-switched RAM behave like

2208-509: Was running, they were used to store the ROM-BIOS and the monitor, eliminating the need to constantly load them from punched tape. Popov developed a text video adapter that works on a conventional household TV and a keyboard read through the PPA KR580VV55, which eliminated the bulky industrial terminal. After a data storage system based on a cassette recorder was developed, in 1980 a prototype of

2256-530: Was the tape exchange among Radio-86RK owners. In 1988, the law on cooperation in the USSR came into force, which made legal to produce software for profit by individuals and cooperatives. From that moment it became possible to buy software for the Radio-86RK. In 1989 the RAMDOS operating system was developed for the computer. It uses part of computer's RAM as a RAM drive . The contents of RAM drive can be loaded and saved to

2304-454: Was to find the necessary electronic components. The editorial board published an appeal to the Soviet electronics industry, proposing they begin producing Radio-86RK kits commercially. By the end of the 1980s manufacturing of computer cases, keyboards and main boards for the Radio-86RK, as well as selling electronic components were carried out by numerous cooperatives. The only software available to

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