The solution should be solved both by hardware and by software. There is bound to be a need to load and play more samples in the future and you'll find yourself right back where you started... software always lags behind hardware.
What has been spoken about on this forum shouldn't technically be that difficult to implement. In fact, I am developing a proto-type of this in software as we speak to prove whether it will work or not.
I'll make my findings available to the technical team of VI
Fingers crossed...

@cm said:

VSL forum is where the engeneering lives ... [:P]
not a bad idea, although this is something the user had to configure in his operating system.
AFAIK also a RAM-disk is limited to 2GB. to use several ones would need to have the available physical memory in your computer.
so 1 RAM-disk 2 GB, kernel memory 1 GB (for windows, drivers, ect), user memory 2 GB (for samples) makes 5 GB RAM in total on your computer and you'd need an operating system which can use more than 4 GB (eg. windows 2003 server enterprise edition - happy downsizing, btw.)

somehow it looks as if we'd need a vista64bit version to get somewhere, and then a 64bit VI could run on it and - we would not need any RAM-disk .... seems cat bytes tail
christian

Well, for people with a 4GB machine that still could be a temporary solution for the 2GB limitation until Vista is out.
Setting up a RAMdisc is not too hard and the Sampler just needed another option in the preferences dialog...

BTW, I'm an engineer's son... [[;)]]

@cm said:

VSL forum is where the engeneering lives ... [:P]
not a bad idea, although this is something the user had to configure in his operating system.
AFAIK also a RAM-disk is limited to 2GB. to use several ones would need to have the available physical memory in your computer.
so 1 RAM-disk 2 GB, kernel memory 1 GB (for windows, drivers, ect), user memory 2 GB (for samples) makes 5 GB RAM in total on your computer and you'd need an operating system which can use more than 4 GB (eg. windows 2003 server enterprise edition - happy downsizing, btw.)

somehow it looks as if we'd need a vista64bit version to get somewhere, and then a 64bit VI could run on it and - we would not need any RAM-disk .... seems cat bytes tail
christian

Actually, upon further investigation, this is a real possibility. If you have a look at the following link:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Storage/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2180&ProductName=GC-RAMDISK
... you'll see that the RAMDisk here is 4gb... in fact, if you think about it, there is no reason why it could not be bigger. After all, it is merely using RAM to store what is otherwise stored on magnetic media. The index into the RAM isn't address space as in memory, but is file system based therefore isn't subject to the same 32bit addressing limitations. Obviously magnetic drives can be 100s of GB, therefore in theory so can RAMDisk.
Therefore, if you could somehow separate the preloaded files from the streamed files, you could place those on RAMDisk for fast access.
Playing back samples would therefore mean that you would need NO pre-load at all in your memory space. When you hit a note, the VI player would simply load the 'pre-load' file on the RAMdisk, then subsequently start loading the non 'pre-load' file on the slower drive.
Of course, once harddrives become totally RAM based and memory and disk converge... [:)]
Christian... does that sound at all possible?
You will also notice that the above product has a back-up battery so data remains on the RAMDisk after shut-down... In other words the pre-load files could be loaded onto the RAMDisk and left there. This would mean ZERO load times for VI. Just bring up the VI VST and go...

i'm leaving aside now considerations if it would be even possible to *split* the preload-portion from the rest of the data (as paynterr assumes) to be stored on an extra drive, this goes too deep into the design of the VI.

but there is something moving http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/10116 and from what i've heard 16 GB is on their roadmap although i found no information about needed RAM-sticks (4GB?) and pricing.
common server chipsets can hold 32 GB RAM in 16 slots and need ECC memory, so following this idea could easily get very expensive quickly.

a zero-loadtime would even then be not possible considering the read-cycles for RAM and a rough calculation turns up that max. available throughput would be limited by several components to ~250 MB/s (where capital B means Bytes). not a bad value, but still *only* 1/6 load time than with a very fast harddrive (~40 MB/s).

so from a value-for-money pont of view (and to avoid complexity of a setup) i'd say it's more reasonable to invest in a high-end raid system, which (correctly configured) can give you 110-150 MB/s.

besides it is of course interesting to think about such optimizations - isn't it a little bit frightening that we are talking about components usually found in supercomputers and number-crunchers when the aim is just to make music?
christian

Rather interesting, I would say! I found an unofficial announcement that Gigabyte wants to offer the i-RAM 2 with up to 16GB RAM which is not fitted on a PCI card but in a 5 1/4" housing.

Although the price for the i-ram seems to be somewhere between 120 and 150 $ it is cheaper than a second computer with all the other problems.

The RAM disk would seem to only be a viable possibility if:
a) It was so large that you could load a significant number of the VI on there (unlikely in the near future)
or
b) The VI samples were split into "pre-load" and "stream" sample files, the pre-load being placed - presumably - on the ram disk. The slower stream files placed on your normal disks.