SanDisk: Windows Vista not optimized for solid-state drives

SanDisk said Monday that Windows Vista is not optimized for solid-state drives, delaying the delivery of optimized drives until next year.

(Credit: SanDisk)

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are used instead of hard disk drives in select high-end notebook PCs today such as the Apple MacBook Air and Toshiba Portege R500.

The next generation of SSDs will use multilevel cell (MLC) technology, which will require a more sophisticated controller--a crucial component in solid-state drives. These drives will have capacities ranging up to 128GB, 160GB, and later, 256GB. MLC drives are expected to appear in a wider selection of notebooks later this year.

Speaking during SanDisk's second-quarter earnings conference call, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eli Harari said that Windows Vista will present a special challenge for solid-state drive makers. "As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk," he said.

This is due to Vista's design. "The next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls," he said.

"Unfortunately, (SSDs) performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we'll start sampling end of this year, early next year," Harari said.

Harari said this challenge alone is putting SanDisk behind schedule. "We have very good internal controller technology, as you know...That said, I'd say that we are now behind because we did not fully understand, frankly, the limitations in the Vista environment," he added.

In the very low-end of the market, however, this is not an issue. "In very low-end, ultra low-cost PCs, existing controllers can get the job done for 8-, 16-, and 32-gigabyte storage because these are relatively unsophisticated...requirements," he said.

SanDisk has a production joint venture with Toshiba, which also makes solid- state drives.

[Yooakim]

Anyone here that can shed any more technical information? What specifics are making Vista so bad for new storage such as SSD?

Curious,
Joakim

[The_Decider]

Besides DRM and viruses, is anything else optimized in Vista?

[coryschulz]

Which means that OSX will probably be amazing on these drives. Sweet!! Does anyone even use Vista? I've never seen it in use.... like ever...

[phill_nz]

i have seen it .. vista on an intel core 2 duo 2 gig ram 256 meg vid card machine took as long to load the C&C game on the first decade dvd as it took to load the same game on a Pentium 100 with 8 meg ram .. i dont care .. it took as long .. so decided to leap to linux .. found ubuntu was quite a small step ,, should have done it years ago

[mnovickar]

Vista's disk activity issues extend well beyond simple swap files. There are background indexing and shadow copy.

SSD tend to be used in applications where random access seek is not an issue.

Turning off Virtual Memory in NT/2K/XP/Vista is a little more complex than disabling swap file space. Trivial in Win3.x/Win9x if you have enough RAM. On the NT family you need to edit some registry stuff too. It (NT3.1 and later) was never designed to be used without Swap.
One difference is Win3.x/Win9x pages, and even pages application code. The NT/2K/XP/Vista family uses the original exe file as part of the virtual Memory, hence shouldn't write the exe code to swap file ever.
Technically on NT/2K/XP/Vista it's not swap at all, but part of Virtual Memory, which is not the same thing.

Technology news: http://www.chilipress.com/technology.php

[roe999]

MDN notes: Sounds like Toshiba's SOL then, huh? Unless you like limiting yourself to running a bloated upside-down and backwards OS that's not optimized for your storage hardware while concurrently prohibiting yourself access to the world's most advanced operating system along with reams of best-in-class applications. Get a Mac - you can even slum it with Windows when you want to see how poorly you can make your SSD perform. Great. Bastardize your hardware design in order to compensate for Microsoft's ineptitude. Do we all get to use these drives that will offer controllers that are designed around Vista's shortfalls? Oh, the excitement.

[Spartan_458]

I'm calling BS on this one. The CEO has no numbers to back it up, and all Vista (or any other operating system, for that matter) is doing is talking to the controller. Vista doesn't care whether you have an SSD, HDD, or any other kind of storage out there. That's up to the controller. He's just using this as a excuse because they're behind in development.

[sonounfrocione]

Sandisk said:
"The results indicate that the new Windows Vista operating system will run optimally when installed on the SanDisk SSD"
http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/PressRoom/PressReleases/PressRelease.aspx?ID=3785

[sonounfrocione]

http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/PressRoom/PressReleases/PressRelease.aspx?ID=3785
Sandisk said:
"The results indicate that the new Windows Vista operating system will run optimally when installed on the SanDisk SSD"

[Perry_Clease]

"Does anyone even use Vista? I've never seen it in use.... like ever..."

Yes, I know several people using it.

[sderf]

Vista what @#$%%^^&*(&^% pitiful excuse for an OS

[Perry_Clease]

"Yes, like 20 million people, lol! Wake up and smell the coffee, dude. You're as dumb as a doornail."

***! Just because million of people use something doesn't mean it is great.

PS: Learn some manners troll

[XeonBAMF]

I'm on Vista cuz its purdy

[AnRkey]

Vista is much better these days, I have endless issues with it still though. I want to slit my wrists when I get to an new issue with Vista.

I moved to Ubuntu after my boss asked me to check out Vista and report back on it. I quickly realised that this was the final straw. I was not going to live by Microsoft's rules any more. I am the owner of my PC and I make the choices about what and how it runs. I decided to switch now rather than have to work like that in the future.

I love not having to store CD keys and other things OS related any more. I know that if it's GPL then it's cool and I don't have to worry about a thing.

I still get files that have viruses, but only from my clients who run Windows. This is normally because my flash stick does not have a read only switch. It's no biggy though, I simply have to scan when I get back home. My system is never effected in any way. Life is pretty shweet, even if I have to boot in to windows for a game.

R

When I want and OS to install, I download it and use it. It's that simple.

[edk6dlo]

FOR A MATTER OF RECORD..........VISTA IS NOT OPTIMIZED FOR NOTHING......AKA.....VISTA SUCKS.......A VISTA HOME PREMIUM USER SINCE IT WAS MADE AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC

[tux_warrior]

Is Vista really as bad as everything you read and hear on the internet about it?

I've never even seen Vista, honestly never plan to either but, even being a Linux user I can't help but wonder how this thing could have been released if it's as bad as everyone says.
I don't know a soul who uses it so I could have a look for myself so obviously someone is buying it, aren't they?

I sometimes feel like I'm missing out on a piece of technology history here but not trying this thing but, to be honest, I did buy WinME. So I guess anything is possible.

[SPasse]

Because I wanted to use solid state disks for embedded applications where hard disk failures equal truck rolls, I have been following the development of SSDs for some time.

My experiments with the 1st gen SATA interface SSDs and Windows XP was extremely disappointing.

After the initial boot (I.E. when the OS started writing to the drive) the system bogged down so much that I thought it had locked up. Even installing the OS from a CD would take the better part of a day and I ended up using Norton Ghost.

It sounds like the same experiment with Vista would be even worse.

Oh well, some day?

[scalemaster34]

Is VISTA at fault?

The article seemed to indicate that the next generation of large capacity SSD will require new controllers, which sounds like a hardware change that will affect all operating systems, not just VISTA.

In addition if you want to make a device that will connect to a computer, and you want it to be available to the largest market... then YOU have to make sure it will work with Microsoft's operating systems. Unfortunately too many Developer do just that, and then stop. I'd love to be able to switch over our network to LINUX, but we have industry specific software that is only made to run on a Windows based system... and emulation is way to complex in an office environment.

[korn_zombie33]

then that means that if u have a solid state hard drive on a mac book air and you run boot camp, u cant run windows vista.

[hswear3]

The Sandisk CEO is spreading FUD. If their SSD products cannot simulate the gold standard that is a magnetic hard drive, then the need to provide a replacement for the standard IDE controller in Windows that works. And it needs to work with indexing, shadow copies, and page files.

The truth is that SSD technology is not mature. If they are not plug and play with magnetic hard drives, then the SSD manufacturer needs to make them so.

Note to all the linux and apple fanboys: get a life! Come On!