Thanks for the feedback. I saw those solid-state hard drives, and those are definitely an interesting option if I am I/O limited. But, I suspect that I am CPU limited, which (ironically, after all the investigation that I have done), seems to make commodity server farms the best option.
Thanks, James > Dear James, > > I recently had the same question, but no definitive answer to offer. > > I guess that throughput/access time requirements depend on: > a) document size (the larger the document, the more the throughput might > be important) > b) how many documents you want to actually read (only a few to display > them, or all to do some processing with them) > If you want to read many documents, seek time becomes more > important > > My best guess is that access time is more important for you, unless you > store only very few very large documents. > > Of course you should look for native command queuing discs (the disc may > reorder the read commands to reduce seek time). > > Another option (if your memory requirements are not so huge) : Solid state > disk, see e.g. > http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/gigabyte-iram/index.x?pg=7 > > The second version shall support up to 16Gbyte, see > http://www.vr-zone.com.sg/?i=3052 > > Best regards, > > Wolfgang
