[ltp] Does hdaps [APS] work on non-Thinkpad hard drives?

[linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org]

On Saturday 05 May 2007 14:43, Laurent Gilson wrote:
> Let's make it even more complex. There is a shock-proof and 100%
> slient storage: SSD. Big SSDs are still way too expensive but the
> price for smaller units (< 16GB) is coming down fast. Froogle
> is your friend.
>
> (I went the other way and made a compressed ramdisc-only linux.
> The HD only spins at startup/shutdown and if i process bigger
> files, like videos. Working with office, netbeans or surfing
> the web in total slience is a unreal but cool experience)

My knowledge is very limited, but the problem I see in regards SSD or NAND 
flash is not only the price, but also the problem with reliability. 
Recoverability on a NAND flash is almost non-existent. On a normal hard 
drive, there are specific ways to get around bad sectors and other types of 
problems that always crop up. The other problem that I see is regards to the 
life-time of a NAND flash. Like a normal flash drive, using it as a normal 
main file storage device where it is accessed constantly and under heavy load 
will result in a much shorter life span than a normal hard drive.

The ramdisc idea is very interesting! I actually played around with this idea 
and loved how some LiveCD distributions offered the "toram" switch. 

Is it possible to suspend to ram and suspend to disk when using a ramdisc? And 
how do you go about updates and installing new software? What about saving 
data? What about if the computer needs to process more data than available 
memory (such as copying a DVD)? I may be mistaken, but if you save to your 
ramdisc then it is really not saved. Once you reboot that data is gone since 
it was merely in memory.