4th February 2003, 8:08 PM
ABF AND LL are right! No, they really are, they just misunderstood each other.
Here's the deal, yes it's quicker to load stuff from the HD than the disk, it always has been, but the HD is not nearly fast enough to do the computational work on it. It's put there so it can get into the RAM quicker, when it's needed, so that then the RAM can access it really fast when it's needed for data processing. RAM will ALWAYS be where all the data that needs to be processed is stored. Even standard cartridges just put stuff like sprites and such into the even faster RAM before processing it. Data loaded directly from the HD to be processed would chug along at an embaressing rate. Data loaded directly from the optical disk would chug along at an even slower rate.
Basically, all the machine ever sees is everything that's currently in RAM, it has to go and fetch the stuff on the HD or the disk before it can do anything with it. If it's not in RAM, it doesn't exist (well, they do know that it does exist, and where to find it, but it can't do anything to it until it goes into the RAM). So, why the HD? Well, it's quicker to dump and load stuff from that to the RAM than from the disk. RAM is the most important aspect for data access. The speed of the disc access and the HD access is all just to get the data into RAM faster. When you play a level in a game like Halo or Metroid Prime, you aren't seeing the data on the disks being used, you are seeing data on the RAM. In fact, you can remove disks (even the HD, if any system didn't have a constant check to make sure it's still there) and keep all of that out, and just play the game until more data is needed. You can't do that with the GCN or XBox because they both have methods to do a constant check to make sure the disk is there (pretty simple really, the second the tray is "open" the check has been accomplished), but the PS2 and PC doesnt' have such a check (unless it's built into the game) so often you can eject the disk, then use some potions or run around and kill something, all without any data needed from the disk. The exception to the rule is with "streaming data" where often data will actually bypass RAM and go to a small little "area" where it's dealt with and tossed very fast, such as straight audio like with a CD.
Here's the deal, yes it's quicker to load stuff from the HD than the disk, it always has been, but the HD is not nearly fast enough to do the computational work on it. It's put there so it can get into the RAM quicker, when it's needed, so that then the RAM can access it really fast when it's needed for data processing. RAM will ALWAYS be where all the data that needs to be processed is stored. Even standard cartridges just put stuff like sprites and such into the even faster RAM before processing it. Data loaded directly from the HD to be processed would chug along at an embaressing rate. Data loaded directly from the optical disk would chug along at an even slower rate.
Basically, all the machine ever sees is everything that's currently in RAM, it has to go and fetch the stuff on the HD or the disk before it can do anything with it. If it's not in RAM, it doesn't exist (well, they do know that it does exist, and where to find it, but it can't do anything to it until it goes into the RAM). So, why the HD? Well, it's quicker to dump and load stuff from that to the RAM than from the disk. RAM is the most important aspect for data access. The speed of the disc access and the HD access is all just to get the data into RAM faster. When you play a level in a game like Halo or Metroid Prime, you aren't seeing the data on the disks being used, you are seeing data on the RAM. In fact, you can remove disks (even the HD, if any system didn't have a constant check to make sure it's still there) and keep all of that out, and just play the game until more data is needed. You can't do that with the GCN or XBox because they both have methods to do a constant check to make sure the disk is there (pretty simple really, the second the tray is "open" the check has been accomplished), but the PS2 and PC doesnt' have such a check (unless it's built into the game) so often you can eject the disk, then use some potions or run around and kill something, all without any data needed from the disk. The exception to the rule is with "streaming data" where often data will actually bypass RAM and go to a small little "area" where it's dealt with and tossed very fast, such as straight audio like with a CD.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)