[Sarcasm Detector]

Question 1: Do you think now that OS6 shows us our Blackberries' RAM; that RIM will go back to advertising the RAM specifications of BBs?

Way back when, in the era of the 8300s and even earlier, RIM used to advertise the amount of RAM and Flash Memory for each Blackberry model. Ex: the 7290 had 64m of RAM and 64m of Flash Memory.

These days RIM only advertises the amount of Flash Memory on a BB.

BB OS6 now shows the memory usage of both the RAM and the Flash (Application Memory). This is something no previous version of BB OS could do and has lead to some startling and interesting observations; such as the BB 9700 having 320m of RAM.

Question 2: Why would RIM stop advertising their phones' RAM specifications?

This never made any sense to me when i first noticed (a few years ago). It still doesn't make much sense to me now. Especially with some of the new features in OS6.

Any ideas guys and gals?

[chuckh0308]

The 9700 does not have 320 MB of RAM, it has 256. The OS and applications are stored and run from that. The other memory is for media, docs, etc.

As long as I've been using BB's this information has been advertised and shown, so I'm confused about what you are saying?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[pbflash]

If you go to blackberry.com every phone shows the amount of ram.

[Sarcasm Detector]

The 9700 does not have 320 MB of RAM, it has 256. The OS and applications are stored and run from that. The other memory is for media, docs, etc.

As long as I've been using BB's this information has been advertised and shown, so I'm confused about what you are saying?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I'm sorry but you are wrong. The 9700 clearly has 320m of RAM and 256m of Flash memory.

...and RIM used to advertise 2 types of memory on their phones. if you don't recall this then it was probably before your time or you weren't paying proper attention.

[Sarcasm Detector]

If you go to blackberry.com every phone shows the amount of ram.

thanks for not reading what i posted, captain obvious.

[CrossedFaith]

I would assume that once they start making new phones with the QNX system, they likely will start advertising the RAM and flash memory. I can hope, anyway.

[Steve Rizla]

My guess is that back in the day, Flash was referring to storage for OS and Apps and RAM was in reference to the information that you could store on the device but not necessarily get to. (i'm not about to fire up my 7250 to find out) I can't remember if you could connect your device to the PC and use it as portable storage.

Now, RAM (which is flash memory) is referring to OS and App storage.
The other memory, which what a small percentage of the average users care about, is the onboard storage, which you use to keep your media, etc.


Which screen are you using to see that you have 320MB remaining? is it represented in Kb and you are just converting it wrong? Could it be that you are seeing the 32MB left of your 256MB?

[Reed McLay]

NOR memories
Reading from NOR flash is similar to reading from random-access memory, provided the address and data bus are mapped correctly. Because of this, most microprocessors can use NOR flash memory as execute in place (XIP) memory, meaning that programs stored in NOR flash can be executed directly from the NOR flash without needing to be copied into RAM first.
...

NAND memories
NAND flash architecture was introduced by Toshiba in 1989. These memories are accessed much like block devices such as hard disks or memory cards. Each block consists of a number of pages. The pages are typically 512[9] or 2,048 or 4,096 bytes in size.
...

If I understand this correctly, a BlackBerry has no conventional RAM memory, it uses two different types of Flash memory.

NOR memory behaves much like RAM, but it is non-volitile. It requries engery to change a bit state.

NAND memory is like a hard disk drive. Great for storage but not directly addressable.


Flash memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Culex316]

Question 1: Do you think now that OS6 shows us our Blackberries' RAM; that RIM will go back to advertising the RAM specifications of BBs?

Way back when, in the era of the 8300s and even earlier, RIM used to advertise the amount of RAM and Flash Memory for each Blackberry model. Ex: the 7290 had 64m of RAM and 64m of Flash Memory.

These days RIM only advertises the amount of Flash Memory on a BB.

BB OS6 now shows the memory usage of both the RAM and the Flash (Application Memory). This is something no previous version of BB OS could do and has lead to some startling and interesting observations; such as the BB 9700 having 320m of RAM.

Question 2: Why would RIM stop advertising their phones' RAM specifications?

This never made any sense to me when i first noticed (a few years ago). It still doesn't make much sense to me now. Especially with some of the new features in OS6.

Any ideas guys and gals?

I figure people don't really care about it, aside from hardcore geeks.

If I understand this correctly, a BlackBerry has no conventional RAM memory, it uses two different types of Flash memory.

NOR memory behaves much like RAM, but it is non-volitile. It requries engery to change a bit state.

NAND memory is like a hard disk drive. Great for storage but not directly addressable.


Flash memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blackberries DO have conventional RAM (Mobile DDR), just like every other smartphone (iPhone 4, Droid X, etc). That's where the OS + apps get loaded upon bootup, just like on a conventional PC.

phoneWreck � BlackBerry Bold – Review and Teardown

The Bold Teardown here shows that it has a Samsung MCP which combines Flash and DDR RAM in one chip

[Sarcasm Detector]

I figure people don't really care about it, aside from hardcore geeks.

you got me there. RIM doesn't market to hardcore geeks :|

[Reed McLay]

I figure people don't really care about it, aside from hardcore geeks.




Blackberries DO have conventional RAM (Mobile DDR), just like every other smartphone (iPhone 4, Droid X, etc). That's where the OS + apps get loaded upon bootup, just like on a conventional PC.

phoneWreck � BlackBerry Bold – Review and Teardown

The Bold Teardown here shows that it has a Samsung MCP which combines Flash and DDR RAM in one chip

Samsung continues to impress with its multi-chip packaged MoviNAND+OneNAND+Mobile DDR. ...

BlackBerry Bold 9000: 128 MB onboard memory, 1 GB internal media memory ...

That explains the Bold 9000 memory structure, but I don't think that applies to the later models.

A volatile RAM computer needs external storage for the OS and Code. It has to be reloaded after each power cycle.

BlackBerry installs OS and code in Flash memory, a process we are very familuar with after doing OS upgrades and installing applications.

[Culex316]

That explains the Bold 9000 memory structure, but I don't think that applies to the later models.

A volatile RAM computer needs external storage for the OS and Code. It has to be reloaded after each power cycle.

BlackBerry installs OS and code in Flash memory, a process we are very familuar with after doing OS upgrades and installing applications.

Yes, it does need external storage, hence the Flash memory.it just exists on the same silicon as the volatile RAM in something called an MCP.

SAMSUNG Semiconductor - Products - Fusion Memory - MCP

If you look at the different Blackberry teardowns listed on that site, all torn down Blackberries have an MCP that incorporates the Application Flash Memory (OneNAND) + Volatile RAM where the OS + Apps run during normal operation + in some cases (Storm, original Bold) the Media Memory (MoviNAND). The Torch uses eMMC for its Media Memory.