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How much RAM does the iPad have?

The whole point of RAM is to simple place data that is being used into a high speed storage area for quicker access.

This is very important for gaming on PC's as they usually have mechanical HDD that have very slow read time and can impact greatly on game play and app performance.

With devices like the iPad they have ultra fast flash memory used as the main storage medium, this is as fast as RAM (its basically the same technology) and therefore significantly reduces the need for the device to have large amounts of RAM.

When the device needs to read information it just reads it from the main storage at RAM like speeds.

So in answer to your question, it wont have more than 1GB of RAM, most likely it will have 512MB.
 
Sipheren said:
The whole point of RAM is to simple place data that is being used into a high speed storage area for quicker access.

This is very important for gaming on PC's as they usually have mechanical HDD that have very slow read time and can impact greatly on game play and app performance.

With devices like the iPad they have ultra fast flash memory used as the main storage medium, this is as fast as RAM (its basically the same technology) and therefore significantly reduces the need for the device to have large amounts of RAM.

When the device needs to read information it just reads it from the main storage at RAM like speeds.

So in answer to your question, it wont have more than 1GB of RAM, most likely it will have 512MB.
Click to expand...

You have no idea what you're talking about. DRAM is not the same thing as NANDs, even basically. NAND flash is a non-volatile memory meaning it does not lose data when power is cut while DRAM does. DRAM also read and write data at GBps rate while NAND can barely do anymore than 250MBps at both read/write and that speed requires the use of very expensive SLC NANDs that for sure is never going to go into iPad. It would cost twice the iPad itself. Not to mention, to gain more speed, a lot of NANDs is required with high end controller by using channel combining method. Each NAND channel can only do around ~50MBps (ONFI 1.0 spec).

Apple will use the stable MLC NANDs with a basic controller that'll process ~20-50MBps of data. Writing data will be even slower than that. I believe iPhone 3GS averages around 30MBps which is far from DDR speeds in GBps.
 
MikhailT said:
You have no idea what you're talking about. DRAM is not the same thing as NANDs, even basically. NAND flash is a non-volatile memory meaning it does not lose data when power is cut while DRAM does. DRAM also read and write data at GBps rate while NAND can barely do anymore than 250MBps at both read/write and that speed requires the use of very expensive SLC NANDs that for sure is never going to go into iPad. It would cost twice the iPad itself. Not to mention, to gain more speed, a lot of NANDs is required with high end controller by using channel combining method. Each NAND channel can only do around ~50MBps (ONFI 1.0 spec).

Apple will use the stable MLC NANDs with a basic controller that'll process ~20-50MBps of data. Writing data will be even slower than that. I believe iPhone 3GS averages around 30MBps which is far from DDR speeds in GBps.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but the basics of what I said are right, I thought the memory being used for the storage in the device would be a lot faster than mechanical HDD's seeing as its Flash memory.

Anyway, RAM is used for what I said and on these smaller devices it's less needed. Oh and I know that NAND is non-volatile, wouldn't be much good for storage if it was volatile, would it?

(I admit I don't know the memory technologies as well as you do, was just assuming and trying to get the basic idea of memory across to the OP)
 
only 256 MB of ram...but it is MAGICAL ram that can turn itself into 1 GB with the use of smoke and mirrors.:eek:
 
doug in albq said:
only 256 MB of ram...but it is MAGICAL ram that can turn itself into 1 GB with the use of smoke and mirrors.:eek:
Click to expand...

That's funny doug!

There are several hardware specs that make a difference in performance, not just RAM, of course.

But, RAM must have some importance, otherwise Apple would not have doubled the available RAM in the iPhone 3GS from previous iPhones.
 
Sipheren said:
Fair enough, but the basics of what I said are right, I thought the memory being used for the storage in the device would be a lot faster than mechanical HDD's seeing as its Flash memory.
Click to expand...
in the right circumstances it can be faster, in the wrong circumstances it's slower.

Anyway, RAM is used for what I said and on these smaller devices it's less needed. Oh and I know that NAND is non-volatile, wouldn't be much good for storage if it was volatile, would it?
Click to expand...
you did say they were the same thing...

(I admit I don't know the memory technologies as well as you do, was just assuming and trying to get the basic idea of memory across to the OP)
Click to expand...
that's what I was getting at about threads like this. It attracts a lot of consumer 'experts' that inadvertantly spread misinformation.

In reality on such a closed platform it's not worth worrying about specs, you really just needyo try it for yourself.
 
MacAgent84 said:
Apple is taking pre-orders starting March 12th (because most likely iPads will be hard to find in stock for a while), don't you think we should know how much RAM is in there before we pre-order?
Click to expand...

If this thread is any indication, you are the only one obsessed with the number figure ascribed to "RAM" on the iPad. While you continue to insist that it is unthinkable that Apple doesn't tell us and we should be properly outraged over it, the simple truth is the vast majority really and truly just don't care. We don't even really have to justify our indifference over it. It just doesn't matter.
 
There is one thing to consider when looking at DRAM size, and that's how it's attached to the SOC. Many ARM SOC's, like TI's OMAP, are targeted for smart phones, where space is extremely limited. Because of this, they use a special type of package that combines a single DRAM die with the SOC die. I suspect Apple's A4, which is likely to be used in a future iPhone, may also do this, but I don't really know.

The thing is, the DRAM density sweet spot (price/GB) is currently at 2Gbit, or 256Mbyte. I haven't checked in a while, but I don't think 4Gbit DRAMs are widely available yet. This is likely why the 3Gs iPhone went from 128MB to 256MB. The only way to get more than 256Mbyte of DRAM in a system is to either double stack the DRAM die (expensive), or bring out the memory interface and use external DRAMs.

We'll know when the iPad ships and someone tears one apart as to which way the A4 went.

-steve
 
sJv said:
There is one thing to consider when looking at DRAM size, and that's how it's attached to the SOC. Many ARM SOC's, like TI's OMAP, are targeted for smart phones, where space is extremely limited. Because of this, they use a special type of package that combines a single DRAM die with the SOC die. I suspect Apple's A4, which is likely to be used in a future iPhone, may also do this, but I don't really know.

The thing is, the DRAM density sweet spot (price/GB) is currently at 2Gbit, or 256Mbyte. I haven't checked in a while, but I don't think 4Gbit DRAMs are widely available yet. This is likely why the 3Gs iPhone went from 128MB to 256MB. The only way to get more than 256Mbyte of DRAM in a system is to either double stack the DRAM die (expensive), or bring out the memory interface and use external DRAMs.

We'll know when the iPad ships and someone tears one apart as to which way the A4 went.

-steve
Click to expand...

Read this if you haven't.
 
I think the only reason to care how much RAM it has is if one model may have more, like the 64MB one??? I would hate to buy the 32GB and discover the 64GB performs better, or maybe they will all perform the same and this is academic.
 
MikhailT said:
Oh, I wasn't suggesting that, was just sharing the information if you didn't read it.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Thanks, Mikhail! It is a good read.

Salty Pirate said:
I think the only reason to care how much RAM it has is if one model may have more, like the 64MB one??? I would hate to buy the 32GB and discover the 64GB performs better, or maybe they will all perform the same and this is academic.
Click to expand...

While there are different flash architectures with differing wear leveling algorithms that do affect performance, I"d be surprised if there is any performance difference between the 3 variants of flash on the iPad.

And RAM is not the same as flash. Think of flash as the hard drive. It's where your content and data are permanently stored. RAM is the fast, temporary, storage that the CPU and operating system use to work out of.

-steve
 
MacAgent84 said:
I don't know why Apple would want to keep people in the dark on this particular tech spec. People will eventually find out anyway.
Click to expand...

Because they don't want you to compare it to a computer -- against that standard, the specs will look terrible no matter what. They want the upgrade cycle to be driven by additional capabilities (like the iPhone gaining 3G internet access in rev 2, video capture and voice control in rev 3) and not by the details of the internal components.
 
There is one reason I can think of for large amounts of RAM - multi-tasking of 3rd party apps, which then raises an interesting possibility.
If Apple have put 1GB or even more RAM in the iPad then that would suggest that they haven't completely discounted the possibility of multi-tasking and we may well see it in OS 4.0
However, if they've left the RAM at 256MB, it's less likely (though not impossible) that they're seriously considering multi-tasking
 
After a closer look I see the iPad has 256MB. I didn't think it would only have 256MB! This sucks!
 
It doesn't have 2GB of RAM.
Decoding the part number shows there is 2Gb of memory inside. This translates into ~128MB of memory per die, for 256 MB total. (NOT 512MB, as we previously reported.)
Click to expand...
It has a total of 256MB RAM.
 
It is being reported by ifixit that there is afterall only 256MB of ram but the good news is that there is a 64 bit data bus to the ram so it is wicked fast and may not need any extra ram than that. the POP design is very cool and I did not expect that. Maybe more ram in gen2 if you want to wait that long for it.
 
Roflcopter

iPad docent have multitasking? Pfff I am on my iPad right now and I am running safari , mail and aralon HD in the same time
 
Sebit2020 said:
iPad docent have multitasking? Pfff I am on my iPad right now and I am running safari , mail and aralon HD in the same time
Click to expand...

Holy resurrection, Batman!

The iPad did not have multitasking abilities besides those few applications made by Apple back when it were first shipping.
 
Can some one answer this I have a 6 month old windows laptop with 4 gig of ram my iPad seems way faster with only the 256 mb of ram only resin I ever use my laptop is to sync every once in awhile that's the only time I ever turn it on after buying this iPad my first apple product I'll never buy I windows product again I luv this iPad
 
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