64 GB 2.5" NAND flash SSD a reality.

[Jammrock]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2763

PQi showed it off at one of the trade shows going on (Computex?). SATA and PATA versions will be released. No pricing announced, but I would suspect quadruple digits initially.

[ZokesPro]

Many MURC members have mentioned how unreliable these drives are after being written so many times seeing as it's flash and all. I wonder how true that really is?

[Taz]

As mentioned in the comments on that page

Unlike DRAM, flash memory chips have a limited lifespan. Further, different flash chips have a different number of write cycles before errors start to occur. Flash chips with 300,000 write cycles are common, and currently the best flash chips are rated at 1,000,000 write cycles per block (with 8,000 blocks per chip). Now, just because a flash chip has a given write cycle rating, it doesn't mean that the chip will self-destruct as soon as that threshold is reached. It means that a flash chip with a 1 million Erase/Write endurance threshold limit will have only 0.02 percent of the sample population turn into a bad block when the write threshold is reached for that block. The better flash SSD manufacturers have two ways to increase the longevity of the drives: First, a "balancing" algorithm is used. This monitors how many times each disk block has been written. This will greatly extend the life of the drive. The better manufacturers have "wear-leveling" algorithms that balance the data intelligently, avoiding both exacerbating the wearing of the blocks and "thrashing" of the disk: When a given block has been written above a certain percentage threshold, the SSD will (in the background, avoiding performance decreases) swap the data in that block with the data in a block that has exhibited a "read-only-like" characteristic. Second, should bad blocks occur, they are mapped out as they would be on a rotating disk. With usage patterns of writing gigabytes per day, each flash-based SSD should last hundreds of years, depending on capacity. If it has a DRAM cache, it'll last even longer.

Taken from http://www.bitmicro.com/press_resources_flash_ssd.php

[Jammrock]

Yeah, the old limitations are not much of a problem any more. I don't know that the drive would last for a hundred years, but up to ten years would seem feasible. Stuff like this will be a blessing for HTPC and laptop users. No moving parts and extremely low power for laptop users, and no moving parts and dead silence for HTPC users. A NAS or xSATA box could be hidden elsewhere in the house for media storage for the HTPC, making it a prize posession once the price drops to reasonable levels.

[ZokesPro]

@Jam: Less heat. Shaking an SSD won't cause the heads to scratch the platters, for obvious reasons. Less bulky. Physically lighter. Faster transfer rates.

[ND66]

@Jam: Less heat. Shaking an SSD won't cause the heads to scratch the platters, for obvious reasons. Less bulky. Physically lighter. Faster transfer rates.

….and less power consumption making the batteries last much longer…..

[ND66]

Sorry, saying "batteries" without "laptop" doesn't make much sense, does it?
Since there are no movable parts & spinning disk, I wonder what the power consumption is.
Andy.

[Jammrock]

Sorry, saying "batteries" without "laptop" doesn't make much sense, does it?
Since there are no movable parts & spinning disk, I wonder what the power consumption is.
Andy.

According to Samsung, Seagate and MS, who are spearheading the hybrid hard drive movement (a traditional HDD plus a 128-512 MB NAND flash buffer that stores OS, office and other commonly used app files in a non-volitile state) state that hybrid drives save up to 40%, or a little over an hour, of battery life. With a pure SSD I would guess the figure would go up a bit. So a low power laptop with a SSD could, theoretically, go 5-6 hours on a single charge?

The next big thing that people are trying to kill is LCDs and the battery sucking backlight. If they can get OLEDs to have a decent lifespan, they will probably be able to get laptops up to 10 hours or more on a single charge.

Jammrock

[ND66]

The next big thing that people are trying to kill is LCDs and the battery sucking backlight. If they can get OLEDs to have a decent lifespan, they will probably be able to get laptops up to 10 hours or more on a single charge.

Jammrock

Yes, but why not go NANO technology? Things are getting smaller & smaller.

Imagine, the CPU could be the size of a wallet and the glasses could have a build in wireless display?!
Motion sensor attached to your hand would serve as a virtual mouse/keyboard combo…

[Wombat]

Ummm, CPUs already ARE nanotechnology. 300 million transistors on something the size of a nickel?