Samsung develops flash-based disk

Flash memory maker Samsung is trying to drive a new kind of disk for PCs.

The company announced Monday that it has developed a "solid-state disk" using flash memory for PCs, which traditionally have used hard drives. The 1.8-inch NAND flash-based disks, which will be available in August, will have a capacity of up to 16GB. The first disks will target sub-notebooks and tablet PCs.

Pricing hasn't been announced yet.

The move to a flash-based disk comes as Samsung, a leader in the flash memory market, tries to double the density of flash memory year by year while driving down cost and increasing the number of markets it can sell flash memory into. The company has been trying to expand the reach of its flash memory business. One target is the consumer electronics market, which is a high-volume but low-margin business. Reaching high densities and volumes of flash memory chips will help to lower costs and make it more feasible to include them in more electronics devices.

The company said the solid state disk is made up of 8-gigabit chips and consumes power at a rate of less than 5 percent of current hard-disk drives. The challenge is to offer capacities in the same range of current mobile hard drives, such as those used in Apple Computer's popular iPod music players, which currently top out at 60GB.

The solid-state disks also weigh less than half of what comparably sized hard drives weigh, according to Samsung. Solid-state disks also don't use moving parts, making them less prone to skipping and also allowing them to be nearly silent.

The disks will read data at 57MB per second (megabytes per second) and write at 32MB per second, according to Samsung.

The disks will also come with a hard-drive style interface, making it easier for manufacturers to use them in PCs.

[mortis9]

the article neglected to mention

they referred to the ipod. One great thing about flash is its duribility. flash can take a fall far better than a hard drive. you can bet my next ipod will be sporting one of those.

[mortis9]

the article neglected to mention

they referred to the ipod. One great thing about flash is its duribility. flash can take a fall far better than a hard drive. you can bet my next ipod will be sporting one of those.

[wazzledoozle]

Why even call it a flash "disk"

Thats misleading in teh way that it could hurt sales. They should call it hard flash or something, other than disk.

[wazzledoozle]

Why even call it a flash "disk"

Thats misleading in teh way that it could hurt sales. They should call it hard flash or something, other than disk.

[Stating]

Why Not Use Both?

Seems to me that until they can offer larger Flash disk capacities at competetive price points, they should consider using both technologies side by side. Put the little used but hoggish data like Windows recovery, printer drivers, fonts, hibernate files, etc. on the hard drive and frequently used, volatile data on Flash. I've got 6 gigabytes worth of Windows crud on c:\, most of which is used infrequently. This doesn't have to be an either/or engineering decision.


Keith
www.techcando.com

[Mendz]

Why not use both indeed!

Microsoft's future Windows versions plan to support flash-based storage media to perform memory swapping and similar/related processes as you mentioned. Yes, I believe there are plans to use both harddisk and flash memory side-by-side. Of course, this will depend on hardware manufacturers who'll create boards with built-in flash memory. I think negotiations are on-going.

[Stating]

Why Not Use Both?

Seems to me that until they can offer larger Flash disk capacities at competetive price points, they should consider using both technologies side by side. Put the little used but hoggish data like Windows recovery, printer drivers, fonts, hibernate files, etc. on the hard drive and frequently used, volatile data on Flash. I've got 6 gigabytes worth of Windows crud on c:\, most of which is used infrequently. This doesn't have to be an either/or engineering decision.


Keith
www.techcando.com

[Mendz]

Why not use both indeed!

Microsoft's future Windows versions plan to support flash-based storage media to perform memory swapping and similar/related processes as you mentioned. Yes, I believe there are plans to use both harddisk and flash memory side-by-side. Of course, this will depend on hardware manufacturers who'll create boards with built-in flash memory. I think negotiations are on-going.

Well, Finally !!!

Been waiting for this for a LONG time. I know they suggested this was for PC's. But I've been thinking about my iPod battery with finite recharges & only about 10 hours play time. Go to solid state & no HD to spin up each time AND have a week or two's play time.

The article said "The disks will read data at 57MB per second (megabytes per second) and write at 32MB per second, according to Samsung.".

Q. Does anyone know whether this is fast enough write speed, to be usable for DVR ?

I have often wondered - we already have picture iPods, and so.....is the video iPod (AKA a DVR machine replacement) far behind, once the capacity & write speed is conquered.

Can you imagine the $ value to Apple if they could get a video iPod on the market first - $$$$$$$$$.

Well, Finally !!!

Been waiting for this for a LONG time. I know they suggested this was for PC's. But I've been thinking about my iPod battery with finite recharges & only about 10 hours play time. Go to solid state & no HD to spin up each time AND have a week or two's play time.

The article said "The disks will read data at 57MB per second (megabytes per second) and write at 32MB per second, according to Samsung.".

Q. Does anyone know whether this is fast enough write speed, to be usable for DVR ?

I have often wondered - we already have picture iPods, and so.....is the video iPod (AKA a DVR machine replacement) far behind, once the capacity & write speed is conquered.

Can you imagine the $ value to Apple if they could get a video iPod on the market first - $$$$$$$$$.

[grey_eminence]

Flash is Unreliable, has asymetric slow write

I cant even believe what I'm reading. In my many years of using all kinds of memory. Flash is the most unreliable and slow memory around.

Flash cost compared to cheap hard drives isnt worthy of discussion.

Solid State Drives will Cost over $ 25.00 a Gigabyte verus the Hard Drive < $ .50 a Gigabyte versus Blu-Ray / HD-DVD $ .012 versus Dvd-R $ .08 versus Inphase Worm Holographic $ .50 versus Atomic Holographic Drive < $ 0.0004 a Gigabyte.

Flash makes great rom configuration boot device but as main program storage is not well suited.

[grey_eminence]

Flash is Unreliable, has asymetric slow write

I cant even believe what I'm reading. In my many years of using all kinds of memory. Flash is the most unreliable and slow memory around.

Flash cost compared to cheap hard drives isnt worthy of discussion.

Solid State Drives will Cost over $ 25.00 a Gigabyte verus the Hard Drive < $ .50 a Gigabyte versus Blu-Ray / HD-DVD $ .012 versus Dvd-R $ .08 versus Inphase Worm Holographic $ .50 versus Atomic Holographic Drive < $ 0.0004 a Gigabyte.

Flash makes great rom configuration boot device but as main program storage is not well suited.

good point

I always believe that the OS should be on a super fast BIOS type chip, were the OS most frequent use files or the core of the OS with an integrated ultra fast dedicated channel to the the memory and CPU. Then have a 10GB solid state disk like samsung for the rest of the OS. Have a 250Gb drive for your programs and personal documents (pictures, documents)

good point

I always believe that the OS should be on a super fast BIOS type chip, were the OS most frequent use files or the core of the OS with an integrated ultra fast dedicated channel to the the memory and CPU. Then have a 10GB solid state disk like samsung for the rest of the OS. Have a 250Gb drive for your programs and personal documents (pictures, documents)