Robson or hybrid hard drive? The battle is coming

Next year, we're going to see a battle of the titans over how flash memory gets incorporated into PCs and notebooks.

Intel is backing a technology called Robson. In Robson, a large amount of data and applications will be stored in flash memory so that the processor won't have to retrieve it from the hard drive, which takes far longer. With Robson, you'll be able to put your PC into hibernate, and come out and start work right where you left off almost instantly, said Dadi Perlmutter, who heads up Intel's Mobility Group.

Robson also cuts power consumption because the drive doesn't have to spin as much as it ordinarily would. The flash in Robson will come in an add-on card or be integrated onto the motherboard.

Samsung, Microsoft and Seagate, meanwhile, all have their eye on the hybrid hard drive, where the flash is inside the hard drive. It stores necessary applications as well as keystrokes, URLs and other material that you put into your computer. When the flash fills up, it wakes up the drive, which takes the data, stores it and goes back to sleep. Technically, drives already come with flash, but they don't perform these functions.

Hybrids could significantly cut power consumption in notebooks because the drive, one of the primary consumers of power, stays asleep the majority of the time.

The two technologies aren't contradictory--a PC manufacturer could implement both. But, that would raise prices and be overkill to a certain degree. Thus, companies are lining up on one side or the other.

Perlmutter claimed that the hybrid drive could get delayed. Seagate refuted that, saying it will come out with hybrids in the first half of next year. Samsung also has said it will come out with hybrids next year. Robson, meanwhile, will come out in the first half of next year, too, and be an option in notebooks based on Intel's Centrino "Santa Rosa" platform.

[bobby_brady]

I don't understand, why not just have a bigger paging cache?

I don't see the difference between storing memory on a hard drive vs a memory cache. I thought that Windows fist checks it's paging file, if the data isn't there it will then fetch it from the hard drive. I don't see how adding static memory to a hard drive will reduce power consumption. Why not simply add more memory to increase the page file?

[coryschulz]

Does anyone know how much memory it will have?

Like 512 mb, 1 gb, or 1.5 gb?

Obviously it's only a matter of time before they release 20 and 30 gig flash hard drives, and then work their way up to 60 and 80 gig flash hard drives. Loading time would be amazing! Combine that with a processor with 80 cores, and new batteries that recharge in 30 seconds, and DDR3 memory, and smaller, thinner laptops with WiFi everywhere.... the future will be sweet!

Maybe one day they'll be able to inject it right into my body and I'll be able to communicate with it as though it was an arm or a leg or one of my eyes. Of course I would not use Windows then, and would probably switch to an Apple or Linux OS.

[Chibiabos]

That's erroneous in my experience

No, Windows uses a pagefile regardless of how much memory you have unless you force it to not do so. A bare Windows system with stripped down services, no applications running and 2 GB of RAM will still have a gargantuan pagefile. Its ludicrous ...

[heystoopid]

Oh well!

Oh well, it is well known that flash drives have certain basic and inherent read /write cycle limitations!

Moore's Law rocks on!

[MarkBentley]

Collaboration?

How many entities would have to be involved in this type of undertaking? Would OS developers, program developers, flash component manufacturers, hard drive manufacturers, and processor manufacturers all need to sit down in a room and hammer out a new integrated system? What if one of these doesn't get on board, does the idea fail? If so, this might take a while to come to fruition.

[bettencourtt]

Great Idea

Actually, I'd like to see the OS and Major (i.e, Office) Apps be written to a 2GB Flash ROM. This way, no virus could orrupt the existing OS, without running a very ovious Flas Utility. The system could be set up so that a button would have to be manually pushed on the PC to allow any Flash Re-writes of the ROM. Think, from pushing the <On> button to Desktop in less than 3 seconds. Secure, too, since it is ROM. Here's an idea: Make a PCM-CIA style card with two partitions: a 2-8 GB ROM for the OS/Apps, and a 100 GB RW piece for your files. the ROM would have the basic hardware and printer drivers for say, the top 100 of whatever. Public PC's would have a port that you would insert this card, and you could push the <On> button, and Bob's your uncle, there you are at YOUR PC, with YOUR settings, and YOUR apps. Treos and Pocket PC's would have a port for this also, with Autodetect to boot a CE-version of Windows/Apple/Linux. All in one card, that, BTW, has a spot on it for your fingerprint. Technically useless to anyone else if lost/stolen. (Yes, there will be exceptional people who will be able to get in, but this still makes it a lot harder.)

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