Vista, EMD, page files?

[Baredor]

So I'm reading through the Vista page on the Microsoft site and get down to "external memory devices". Link

Perplexing quote:

Your computer is able to access memory from an EMD device much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive, boosting system performance. When combined with SuperFetch technology, this can help drive impressive improvement in system responsiveness.

Now last I heard, usb flash memory was nowhere near the speed of a HDD, so how in the world can it be used as expandable system memory? Or is this aimed at Grandma who doesn't care if it takes a week to load her apps, rather than performance users?

If this can become a reality, I'd definitely like to set up a 2 gig thumbdrive as a pagefile instead of having a dedicated HDD for it, but I'm not willing to sacrifice any amount of performance for it.

Please unconfuzzled me.

 

[nessus]

From MS:

External memory devices

Adding system memory (RAM) is often the best way to improve your PC's performance. More memory means more applications are ready to run without accessing the hard drive. However, upgrading memory is not always easy. You must learn what type of memory you need, purchase the memory, and open your computer to install the memory—which sometimes can invalidate your support agreement. Also, some machines have limited memory expansion capabilities, preventing you from adding RAM even if you are willing to do so.

Windows Vista introduces a new concept in adding memory to a system. USB flash drives can be used as External Memory Devices (EMDs) to extend system memory and improve performance without opening the box. Your computer is able to access memory from an EMD device much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive, boosting system performance. When combined with SuperFetch technology, this can help drive impressive improvement in system responsiveness.

EMD technology is both reliable and secure. You can remove an EMD at any time without any loss of data or negative impact to the system; however, if you remove the EMD, your performance returns to the level you experienced without the device. Wear on the USB drive is not an issue when using it as an EMD. A unique algorithm optimizes wear patterns, so that a USB device can run as an EMD for many years, even when heavily used. Finally, data on the EMD is encrypted to help prevent inappropriate access to data when the device is removed.

 

[boredguyatcomp]

flashdrives on usb2.0 can trasmit data at about 30MB/s pc 3200 ram can transmit data at 3200MB/s... it does seem quite slow when you think about it like that.

 

[MorfiusX]

Flash memory has a very low seek time in comparison to a HD. That's one advantage right? If you where to load that with pre-fetch data that would normally be scattered about on the HD and would require many seek operations, it may speed things up. Just my shot in the dark...

Maybe this might help: http://www.storagesearch.com/semico-art1.html