Comments on: Samsung launches 256GB solid-state drive

Electronics maker begins mass-producing its largest-capacity SSD product to date. Its single-platform design includes a chip controller, NAND flash, and special drive firmware.

[pase121]

SRP 2 million dollars!

[CHRlSCO]

Why do you guys talk about sequential writes. What matters more is non-sequential writes.

[texaslabrat]

agree. And it looks like Sandisk, for one, has been working on that issue: http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_SanDisk_Deploys_ExtremeFFS_For_Accelerated_SSD_Random_Write_Speeds_28385.html

"In 2009, SanDisk will begin deploying flash management systems capable of accelerating SSD random write speeds by up to 100 times compared to the technology we have today, the company revealed this week during the WinHEC conference held in Los Angeles."

[gerrrg]

Eventually, SSDs will replace hard drives in servers...but first, the workstations.

[The_Decider]

Not until the limited write problem is fixed. A busy server could destroy a SSD in a matter of weeks.

[texaslabrat]

@The_Decider:

The limited write issue has been basically solved with improved manufacturing and smarter wear-leveling algorithms. There are server-certified SSD's available today. They tend to be quite a bit more expensive as they use SLC rather than the cheaper MLC tech..but they generally carry a 5-yr warranty explicitly for server use. Even the MLC drives have pretty reasonable write cycles these days...more than enough for the average consumer, anyway...and approaching what a "light-duty" server would need.

[Mr. Dee]

Hmm, thats bigger than my 160 GB mechanical hard disk in my laptop. Still, its the issue of the mechanical hard disk being 1 step ahead of the SSD for a few years to come. Yes, I can get this SSD for huge sum of money, but I can get a cheaper 320 GB HD.

[alan_06]

Awesome innovation! I'm looking forward to lightweight smaller laptop form factor

[knowles2]

So let get down to the thing that matter, the price, how much is this thing gonna cost us.

[Henry Michael Karshis]

I'm waiting for this puppy to support USB 3.0 as portable drive!

HMK

[humanssssss]

How much?

[JoshMiller79]

Don't these things fail reasonably quickly due to limited read/write cycles?

solid State is great for my thumb drive with it's handful of "currently working on but still backed up" documents but I wouldn't want to store my music/movie collection on one.

[tipoo_]

no, thats become a non-issue now that the MTFB is near or better than hard drives.

[Renegade Knight]

Yes. The solution seems to be "wear-leveling" which has me wondering if that's a fancy way to say "forced fragmentation".

[Renegade Knight]

Yes. The solution seems to be "wear-leveling" which has me wondering if that's a fancy way to say "forced fragmentation".

That may or may not mean anything with one of these drives.

[thelemurking]

I'm willing to beta test one of these drives in my laptop if Samsung is willing to send me one... and I promise not to download any porn! ;)

[renGek]

Its going to be verrrry expensive. Not only that but HD makers want you to buy ssd because they can make more money off of it than the traditional drives now. Drive makers are going to start ignoring traditional drives fairly soon especially in this economy. Of course in this economy, who the heck is going to spend $600+ on an SSD drive (only guessing on the price so don't jump on me about it).

[dirty55409]

Try dropping your 1tb barracuda HDD from 4 ft off the ground.... now try it with a SSD. That's what you're getting from shelling out for a SSD. Faster Reads(but with slower writes) is also a benefit for SSD

[make_or_break]

Then DON'T DROP that HDD! Seems like a simple enough concept.

[Mikeybabes]

Getting this 256GB SSD in a notebook "is analogous to having a 15,000-(revolutions-per-minute) drive, without all of its size, noise, power, and heating drawbacks," Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing at Samsung Semiconductor, said in a statement.

I thought Tomshardware busted the myth that SSDs consume less power overall, in that they draw power continuously.

[dirty55409]

where/when was that statement made? I would just look at his title "Memory Marketing" so ummm when was the last time you were pitched a sale that was false? He gets paid to move product not to tell the truth. So yeah.

[iff2mastamatt]

I think the SSD's need a little bit more time to perfect before they can replace HD's. At least Samsung and Sandisk are diligent with their progress.

[SystemsJunky]

If you want a fast Laptop HDD, get a 360gb VelociRaptor.

[Rants&Raves]

Agreed, the VelociRaptor is amazing. But it'll also eat your batteries like nothing else.

[billwklein]

What is funny is that this is two drives configured into a RAID 0 configuration crammed into one enclosure... Its creative, but hardly good technology.