Many RAID cards I have seen have a backup battery to protect the data in the cache memory installed in a DIMM slot on the card. In case of a power cut, mission-critical data in the cache is retained in the card’s memory and can be accessed.

This memory was often SDRAM identical to that recommended for the XS. I have no idea whether there are fundamental reasons why not but It occurred to me that it would be quite a boon to be able to maintain the contents of the Motif’s DIMMS when the main power to the XS is switched off.

In other words, you load a (say) 382 MB .X0A file and it remains loaded after you power off.

Would anyone care to tell me why this is unfeasible as it seems such a desirable and (realtively) inexpensive feature.

B

That’s a very good thought indeed.  But the tricky thing with SDRAM (and DRAM in general) is that each memory cell needs to be refreshed rather frequently.  So that means, it’s not just to attach a battery to the SDRAM module and it will survive a shutdown.  In the old days, the refresh was usually around 64ms, so you need some kind of logic to do this refreshing.  In addition, this needs to happen when the motherboard do not attempt to read or write from/to the memory module.  SDRAM usually got some kind of auto-refresh built in, but it can not be activated before it is for sure that the motherboard won’t do any read/write operations.

In addition, you’ll need some elements which will take care for proper charging of the battery.

So, it is doable ... but it is not as inexpensive as the idea might seem at the beginning.

(wrong post)

It’s been discussed here over the years already.
Without consequences.

;JOOP!

Clearly there have been no consequences; ergo my question :))_

Has anyone from Yamaha passed comment?

Alternatively, is a low power mode like D0 or D3 on an ACPI computer unfeasible/too costly?

I doubt that leaving the XS powered up (temperature allowing) is too dangerous in which case, the ability to switch off the screen would be useful.

Just thinking aloud as I am spending so much time with the instrument nowadays.

Regards,

B

why doesn’t Yamaha just enable either USB or Firewire Hard Drive reading for memory samples? I mean, it’s so much easier, and you remove that retarded 1 GB of RAM limit.........................

seriously, I think its time that Yamaha really de-handicaps its products. They all have great sound, but as to features.........................................

Praise GOD that that new OS update is coming allowing audio mixdown on a USB device, finally people around here can get some WORK DONE!!!! (I am not kidding. read my other thread regarding XS Audio Driver issues.........)

a little OS tinkering and expandability would make this product SO MUCH better than when we first bought it.

Also, Yamaha_US, if you’re around here, I have a question for you.
How come a freakin PSR can browse the internet in order to download samples, but the ,,oh so hip,, XS can’t?
I mean, it does have LAN now, doesn’t it? then what’s up with the lazy OS development?
Come one, you can do better than this! Hire some developers to enhance the features of the operating system for crying out loud............

why doesn’t Yamaha just enable either USB or Firewire Hard Drive reading for memory samples?

In a word - speed.

A piece of data in RAM can be accessed in (approx) 0.00001 milliseconds.
as opposed to......
The average latency of an IDE hard drive which is .......4.2 milliseconds
(the average time for the data to rotate into position to be read).

So RAM is very roughly 420,000 times faster as a medium from which data is read. There are also the limitations of the USB or 1394 bus - both of which (at between 400-800mbit/sec) have considerably less bandwidth than the PCI (express?) memory bus accross which the data travels when held in RAM.

Once loaded from USB stick or drive, the samples are held in RAM. If the synth (when played) were to accesss each sample from a hard drive, the latency would be risible.

B

Bad Mister already claimed once that he left his Motif on for 3 years without a problem.

;JOOP!

Ha! nice one.

Do you reckon the screen will get burn in? (I presume BM’s was not an XS from the 3 year bit).

Thanks.

B

boulez - 09 May 2009 02:26 PM

Ha! nice one.

Do you reckon the screen will get burn in? (I presume BM’s was not an XS from the 3 year bit).

I didn’t know that LCD displays could get burnt ......