Upgrading Your Cisco Memory

Telepresence and Holography / Holograms - November 2008

Editor’s viewpoint on their differences, likenesses and future...

We all just recently viewed an historic CNN holographic interview on an historic Election Night. CNN stated this type of imaging has never been done before on National TV and I believe that. I haven’t seen anything like it. The live interview caught me by surprise and sure had the “wow” factor attached to it didn’t it? Here’s a link to the actual interview.

CNN Hologram Video

The question now has to be asked. Is it Telepresence?

I’m no expert on the subject but I’m going to throw my hat into the ring, go out on a limb and say yes, I believe it is. Although I know many video conferencing purists are rolling their eyes and grabbing their guns right about now with my statement.

While I do know that Telepresence still hasn’t been universally defined (Houston, we have a problem), here’s how I see it…. Broken down to its simplest form - “tele” (through electronic means) and “presence” (present). This is how I’m justifying my opinion by lumping holography and Telepresence together. Just as Telepresence is surely an offshoot of video conferencing, holographic imaging (like we viewed on CNN) surely has to be considered an offshoot of Telepresence. The interviewer was “telepresent” from Chicago and beamed into the CNN Election Headquarters. She was most assuredly - “telepresent”. There was negligible latency, the imaging was fantastic and both interviewers were rehearsed on what they would say. I’ve just recently read that CNN actually “downgraded” the experience to make it “movie” quality and not as good as it could have been. Maybe they thought us mere mortals would be shocked if they showed their complete hand. I have a feeling it was so big to them, they didn’t want it to get upstaged by the historic election. I’m willing to bet we’ll see the “true” power of this technology in the upcoming weeks and months when they can put the pedal to the medal and show it off without having it sidetracked.

What an amazing time for this technology (all differences and opinions aside). Telepresence Doctors, nurses, teachers, schools and healthcare (healthpresence) will benefit from the recent gains in this state-of-the-art industry whether holograms, Telepresence or holography. Airlines also have to see the threat to a portion of their business travel. Hell, who wants go through security and fly to Miami for a two-hour conference when you can look them in the eye via Telepresence?

Beam me up Scotty! Simply amazing…!

Visit the free Telepresence Forum for more information and discussion

Your Editor and Administrator - L II
"Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" TM

Almost all advanced Cisco routers and switches are equipped with the Cisco proprietary operating systems called the IOS (Internetwork Operating System). Cisco PIX firewalls have a special operating system, the PIX Finesse OS.

In some versions of the IOS, there is a MIB (Management Information Base) module integrated into the IOS operating system. The MIB is an operating system component included with all recent IOS distributions that allows network administrators to view and manage device memory over the network. MIB is prerequisite software for other applications that deal with Cisco memory management, reporting data to RME (Resource Manager Essentials) and during installation of other additional software to a given device.

Before discussing the reasons to upgrade your router's memory, the following is description of the different types of memory that used in a Cisco product.

Processor Memory

This memory acts similar to the CPU cache in a computer, controlling all basic computing operations of your switch or router. Regardless of any other memory being used, the processor memory is always the first memory that is accessed and used. All the files needed for booting and essential system files required for functioning for any Cisco device are stored in the processor memory. If you are using a product that has IOS before 11.1, then the total of all types of memory is reported as the processor memory.

Flash Memory Card/Disk or Cisco Memory Card

The flash memory is a special type of programmable memory that is used to store images of the IOS software on it, in addition the flash memory is used to upgrade versions of the router or switch being used. The term 'flashing a product' means upgrading the version of IOS stored on the flash memory card.

Shared Memory/RAM (Random Access Memory)

The reason this is often referred to as the shared memory, is that it is erased every time the router is restarted or when the memory is deliberately cleared. This memory is usually the easiest to upgrade. The RAM stores all data that is temporary in nature, and upgrading the RAM usually helps improve the speed and the computing power of the Cisco product. It is generally cheaper than Flash memory, and manufactured both OEM by Cisco and by third party manufacturers, such as PC Wholesale.

While PIX firewalls and the routers that IOS runs on ultimately have finite processing power, this is often not the bottleneck that first limits their ability to grow. More often, IOS is hampered by having allocated as much (or more) dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) than it has available. Older firewalls and routers, which shipped with very small Cisco memory (Flash) cards, the factor limiting the usefulness of the hardware may be the Operating System installed on it.

IOS and PIX OS each have vastly larger memory footprints than they did as recently as a few years ago, and the current versions of these operating systems require more memory than many devices are equipped with. Both the RAM and Flash memory of a Cisco router can be upgraded. Such an upgrade may significantly extend the longevity of a network operating with older equipment. Two of the principal reasons to upgrade your devices memory to increase its speed and to run the most current version of Cisco IOS.

Increasing speed

Just like conventional computers, increasing the memory of a Cisco product increases its speed. If the product is a Cisco router or switch that handles large amounts of data over the network, increasing the RAM of the product can improve both the processing speed and the device's performance.

Upgrading the IOS

For devices with Cisco IOS 11.1 or older the only way to improve its performance is to upgrade the IOS. However, older Cisco hardware is usually not equipped with sufficient flash memory to store a newer version of the IOS. In this case, the only option is to upgrade the flash memory of the Cisco product. All versions of the Cisco IOS after version 11.1, used by most Cisco routers and non-firewall hardware around the world, has functionality to report MIB values over the network via SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), allowing network administrators and other authorized device managers to make queries to the database from across the network. Obsolete versions of the IOS, without the MIB module, do not have this functionality and can only report the size of processor memory.

Sterling Christian writes exclusively for PC Wholesale. Sterling writes about the use, operation and upgrading of Cisco and Sun Microsystems devices. PC Wholesale carries Cisco Approved memory, Sun original memory, & third-party memory for all Sun and Cisco devices. www.pc-wholesale.com.

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To learn more about Telepresence, the revolutionary new style of immersive video conferencing; visit these websites:

Telepresence - "Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" - Telepresence
Telepresence Web Portal - Telepresence Internet web portal
Telepresence Report - 24/7 breaking Telepresence related news and information
Via Telepresence - Video conferencing via Telepresence
Telepresence Forum - Free user discussion forum for everything Telepresence related
Telepresence Today - Telepresence information and editor qualified headline news
Telepresence Resource Directory - Telepresence web resource directory
Telepresence Tube - Telepresence videos, pictures and more