Developer(s) | Syncronys Softcorp |
---|---|
Stable release | 1995
/ August 1995 |
Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
Type | System software |
License | Proprietary |
Website | syncronys.com at the Wayback Machine (archived December 28, 1996) |
SoftRAM and SoftRAM95 were system software products that claimed to increase or even double the available random-access memory in Microsoft Windows without the need for a hardware upgrade, which is theoretically possible using memory compression. However, it later emerged that the program did not have any actual compression algorithm.[1]
In July 1996, the developer of SoftRAM, Syncronys Softcorp, agreed to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the company "misrepresented and/or failed to substantiate the performance" of the products.[2] As part of the settlement, Syncronys Softcorp offered $10 rebates for affected consumers. The primary owners of the company in 1996 were Daniel Taylor (41%), Rainer Poertner (16%), and Wendell Brown (10%), and Mobius Capital Corporation, which owned 40.8%.[3][4]
In 2006, the product was rated the third "Worst Tech Product of All Time" by PC World behind AOL and RealPlayer (1999 version).[5] Around 100,000 copies of SoftRAM and 600,000 copies of SoftRAM95 were sold overall.[2][6]
I found the compression algorithm...They implemented only one compression algorithm. It was memcpy. In other words, their vaunted patent-pending compression algorithm was "copy the data uncompressed"...with a stub compression function that did no compression...