[geeks] Flash drive questions

[der Mouse]

>>>> [...flash device as pseudo-RAM...]
>>> The idea is not to use the flash drive for scratch pad/temporary
>>> files, but nearly static files that take up a lot of space and are
>>> used infrequently (relatively speaking - like DLL files)...

This sounds less like using it as RAM than it does like simply putting
a filesystem there with the relevant files on it.

You can't treat it as RAM anyway (eg, execute code out of it) unless
your memory subsystem supports it; you'd have to copy stuff to real
RAM, at which point it's even more like a "solid-state disk".

> In my mind, the executables (DLLs, etc.) would remain in flash memory
> and not have to be reloaded each time the unit is powered up...

Even more like a solid-state disk.  If you make it look like RAM, it
will be treated like RAM, including not assuming anything about its
contents on power-up.

You could in principle hack an OS to "know" that this special piece of
address space over here is nonvolatile, but I don't really see the
point.  This is done for peecee BIOSes and such, but unless you're
doing something similar that must appear in the address space before an
OS starts, I'm not convinced it's worth the trouble.

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