Originally posted by: Paperlantern
what about ram drives? i've only heard about them, or are they essentially compact flash. I wouldnt think so, since RAM is unlimited read writes, and direct access memory. They have battery back ups to keep info, but if the computer are going to be used in server type scenarios they wouldnt be turned off ANYWAY. jsut a thought
You could actually install the OS to a CF card, and then at boot time create a ram drive and copy the image there. That would reduce by far the numer of reads/writes to the CF and squid performance would be great, however the downside to that would be the amount of ram required and the long boot time to read the image from the CF.
The other thing you might be referring to as a ram drive is a Solid State hard drive. They're different than compact flash. That was the first thing I thought of when I first started on this project, but I had not checked the prices in years, and assumed they were still several thousand dollars. However, check this out.
Simpletech 640mb Solid State drive
It's only $400 for a 640mb drive. That might not leave much room for caching, but it'll be sufficient, I think.