ram stick consisting of a flexible PCB wrapped around a plastic bar. this allowed them to put chips on the inside of the board, doubling the density.
I've been digging for a little bit. I don't think anyone else ever did this and I don't think Smart Modular ever tried it again. I think this is the only stick of ram ever made with this technique.
I really did consider not putting the "back then" but this looked so much like a very old connection but I guess that's more because of how it had to be built. Was this for servers. This feels like a nightmare you'd only find in servers
Ah, so the cooling is simply solved by adding a few more tiny screaming 8000 RPM fans...
I think the word “cursed” has been applied to a lot of things that don’t necessarily qualify, but this absolutely does. What a fantastically stupid idea lol.
it looks like a cursed version of old ram sticks, like would be in an SGI Indy or something
Having experienced an Atari 5200 controller with its aggressively bent flat-flex, I can see why this packaging was DOA.
It's amazing, and I hate it so much. I've come up with cursed ideas designing PCBs and I don't think I've ever come up with something as bad as that. The fact they used a plastic bar rather than just a rigid PCB with all copper pours and vias for heatsinking is what I think makes this double-cursed.
