If you’re in the know about all things technical, you may have heard of reflective memory, a means to share common data between different, independent systems in a deterministic fashion. These systems form a network where any system in the given network can acquire data and write it to its local memory. This data is then written locally to all other systems so that each computer or device always has an up-to-date copy of the shared data set. In many ways, this technology owes a lot to two pieces of technology, real-time local area networks and dual-ported memory systems. Read on to learn more about some of the crucial elements that have given us this advanced technology.
A Brief History
Reflective memory was developed in the early 1980s, and initially used by VMIC for VME systems. After VMIC was acquired by GE Fanuc, a cooperative venture between GE and Fanuc of Japan, but is now owned wholly by GE. The technology is now operated as a part of the GE Intelligent Platforms business unit within GE.
Local Area Networks
You’ve likely heard of local area networks, or at least seen their common acronym, LAN. A local area network is a group of computers and other associated devices that share a common wireless link to a server or communications line. Normally, LANs are used to encompass computers and other peripherals connected to a server within a small geographical area, like a home or office building. These computers and other devices can then share resources like network storage or printers and scanners. It may serve as few as two or three users in a home and as many as hundreds of employees within a large company. With this shared access to resources, it is clear how reflective memory built off of this technology.
Dual-ported Memory Systems
This technology, often referred to as dual-ported RAMs or DPRAMS, is a type of random access memory that allows for multiple writes and reads to occur at or very near the same time. This is a tenet of memory sharing. It can be used for videos and images as well as more traditional text files.