Char Ell Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 Toms Hardware - "Conventional Hard Drive Obsoletism?" First we had USB flash drives, then the iPod Shuffle, followed by the iPod Nano. The next logical step in the evolutionary process would be solid state hard drives, right? And whaddya know? Samsung has made the first solid state disk aimed at replacing hard drives (that I'm aware of anyway). At 32 GB it's nothing to write home about in terms of capacity but considering that flash memory retails for around USD$25/gigabye, the 32 GB should sell for around USD$800. Ouch!!! I'm going to have to wait for prices to drop before acquiring my own. I'm not sure why Samsung went with an UltraATA/66 interface though. I would also want that stepped up to SATA before I would make the purchase. I can see how these drives would be great in notebook PC's and some server environments. PROS: - no mechanical failure problems like current hard drives have. Bye-bye hard drive crashes. - seek times reduced to almost nothing since there is no need to spin up the disk. - lower power consumption than current hard disk drives CONS: - high price - relatively low capacity in comparison to current hard disk drives - uses an UltraATA/66 interface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSI Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 Ah, flash technology for a HDD. Interesting, but I'd like a more faster HD to get faster reading-writing speed, besides, SATA/RAID tech is very useful in my computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samnmax221 Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 I'm still waiting for "Hybrid Drive" myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick5770 Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 This is cool, but that is way too expensive for me to consider, my computer didn't cost that much. It is cool to see that technology of flash drives being used for laptops and desktops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerbieZ Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 Looking at the new ipod shuffle recently, im beginning to think there is nothing that cannot be done. So im waiting for my jetpack to be invented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth InSidious Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 Interesting. Presumable this will also mean more compact, and more easily upgradeable HD's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted September 27, 2006 Author Share Posted September 27, 2006 More compact? Possibly. I'm not sure if HDD manufacturers are ready to launch a new form factor though. The Samsung SSD drive in the article is the same dimensions as current HDD's although it weighs about half as much. Easier to upgrade than existing HDD's? I don't think there will be much of a difference in terms of installation. HDD's are fairly easy to install as it is and unless manufacturers develop a new interface for SSD's then they should install in fairly much the same manner as HDD's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted September 27, 2006 Share Posted September 27, 2006 Been waiting for this for a while now. Can't wait 'til it's affordable. A high-volume storage device with almost zero seek time. Very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth InSidious Posted September 27, 2006 Share Posted September 27, 2006 More compact? Possibly. I'm not sure if HDD manufacturers are ready to launch a new form factor though. The Samsung SSD drive in the article is the same dimensions as current HDD's although it weighs about half as much. Easier to upgrade than existing HDD's? I don't think there will be much of a difference in terms of installation. HDD's are fairly easy to install as it is and unless manufacturers develop a new interface for SSD's then they should install in fairly much the same manner as HDD's. Interesting. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted September 27, 2006 Author Share Posted September 27, 2006 ^^^ Got thinking more about the compact size issue. This SSD technology would be a much improved replacement for notebook PC HDD's. The lower power consumption, less heat generation, and much greater shock resistance of SSD's makes this a no-brainer. Current noteboook PC HDD's are already fairly small though so I don't know if OEM's will go with a smaller form factor but I definitely think it's more likely they would develop a new form factor/interface for notebook PC's than they would for desktop PC's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darth_dub Posted September 28, 2006 Share Posted September 28, 2006 sounds cool i'll have to look in to this.thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted September 29, 2006 Share Posted September 29, 2006 This is the way of the immediate future. Just like NAND devices like mp3 players have surpassed things like tape walkmans/discmans, the same will happen with data storage media. Samsung are already shipping their SSD with Q1 ultramobile pc. Although Im in the market for a uPC, after playing with the Q1, im holding out for the asus. (the SSD version of the Samsung Q1 is pretty much double the cost of the standard!) mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk102 Posted September 29, 2006 Share Posted September 29, 2006 Also of note, Samsung recently developed a 40-nano 32Gb flash chip (compared to the 16Gb chips used in this SDD). They expect to get to 20nm also. http://www.samsung.com/PressCenter/PressRelease/PressRelease.asp?seq=20060911_0000286548 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted September 30, 2006 Author Share Posted September 30, 2006 Excellent link, tk102. I found the following sentence quite interesting. Introduction of a 40nm manufacturing process for 32Gb NAND flash marks the seventh generation of NAND flash that follows the New Memory Growth Theory of double-density growth every 12 months, which was first presented by Dr. Chang Gyu Hwang, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor Business in a keynote address at ISSCC 2002. I didn't know the flash memory peeps had their own version of Moore's Law. So if that theory holds true then maybe we'll see viable consumer SSD drives in 4-5 years? That is what I'm hoping for anyway. As Astrotoy7 mentioned, the price for SSD technology is still way too high for mainstream consumer applications like a uPC. I figure the cost per GB needs to drop from its current ~$25 USD to around $2-3 USD in order to compete with HDD's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montnoir Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Solid whut? ...tha h*ll?! My 240 MB AST harddrive that I've had since 1994 is more than enough for me thankyouverymuch! KOTOR flows like silk on it! F**k yea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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