A 'ramdisk' is a virtual volume (like C:) that uses physical memory instead of a more permanent storage media (floppy, harddisk, CD, DVD, USB stick, etc.).  The memory is allocated and set up just like a regular disk.  On the Amiga, this was a built in feature.  On other OSs, it requires software to create and manage (don't know about MacOSX).

The advantage is that RAM access is billions of times (alright, that's an exaggeration) faster than harddisk access.  Reads and writes are nearly instantaneous.

The disadvantage is that one cannot maintain a ramdisk between power ups/downs because memory modules only store data while there is a continuous refresh (i.e.: electric current).  'Firmware' works around this because it is not volatile memory but, just like those USB memory sticks, has EPROM or similar.  Your computer's BIOS is an EPROM memory which permanently stores the BIOS settings.  So, you'll need to recreate the ramdisk each time you power up.  The ramdisk software may or may not let you save the volume contents to disk inbetween.  Another disadvantage is that it uses memory.  Once you give it a 1GB ramdisk, that memory cannot be used by other applications.  Careful planning of the maximum ramdisk size is critical if you don't want to run out of memory for other apps.

Robert

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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