The Glass Computer

摘要

Digital computers use different kinds ofmemory, each of which is either volatile ornonvolatile. On most computers only thehard drive memory is nonvolatile, i.e., it retains all in-formation stored on it when the power is off. When acomputer is turned on, an operating system stored onthe hard drive is loaded into the computer's memorycache and system memory. Cache and system memoryare volatile, i.e., data in them are lost when the com-puter is powered down. A more ideal computer wouldhave nonvolatile memory for both cache and systemmemory to allow for "instant-on" capabilities. Ofcourse any such memory would have to be as fast andas durable as existing volatile devices to be consideredan improvement over current systems.