Sandisk shows off Flash hard disks

Author: Brett Thomas
Published: 9th January 2007
Comments (15) Stumble
Sandisk shows off Flash hard disks

The Samsung SSD is a 1.8" 32GB hard drive. Could we soon be seeing them in notebooks?

We got a chance to sit down with Sandisk on Tuesday, and had a real treat. Aside from the usual releases of audio/video products and further information of the new Sansa items, I got to hear about the company's latest accomplishment - a totally Flash-based HDD.

The drive, whose technology is dubbed SSD, is currently at 32GB - though there have been working prototypes that even surpassed 350GB (not in the actual 1.8" form-factor, though!). The drive is UATA compatible, so it will run within current notebooks without any trouble. By switching to Flash-based storage, a laptop will now have a lot more durability for its data and a much longer battery life. In fact, not having to drive the HDD could nearly cut power usage in half!

Unfortunately, we won't be seeing these in the retail sector just yet. First up on the list of purchasers is a wealth of OEM laptop makers, who will be very interested in the power conservation aspect of the new drive. Though Sandisk was not able to tell us who would be coming out with them first, it's pretty easy to assume there are a group of companies who would want them.

Though hybrid drives will likely be more useful for desktop applications, the solid-state storage of Flash will greatly help the lower-powered laptop sector. Prices could increase the cost of the laptops by up to $600 USD (very roughly estimated), so the security and battery life are far from free. However, as with all things, this technology will likely make its way down the price ladder and up in capacity very quickly.

We'll be looking forward to seeing it develop now that it's no longer just a proof of concept. How about you? Let us know in our forums.
Quote rupbert 9th January 2007, 23:33
As you say a price premium will be involved initially however the potential battery life is very promising.

And running Vista with it's readyboost could make for an extremely responsive OS.
Quote Woodstock 9th January 2007, 23:56
Now we just need something with a half-decent storage for use in a desktop
Quote DeX 10th January 2007, 00:04
I'm suprised how long flash based hard drives are taking to appear. I don't see why seagate can't just stick a 1gb flash card into one of its barracuda drives and give us another layer of cache between the regular cache and the magnetic hard disk. Still when we're all running Vista in a year's time I'm sure these innovations will be with us too.
Quote Sol Badguy 10th January 2007, 00:45
so how fast are these drives?
Quote Aankhen 10th January 2007, 01:11
Did they solve the problem of limited write cycles?
Quote Emon 10th January 2007, 01:24
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aankhen
Did they solve the problem of limited write cycles?
Yeah, apparently this one is supposed to last 2 million hours. That's 228 years. Even if it's an optimistic figure, a tenth of that is more than enough.
Quote Adnuo 10th January 2007, 03:37
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aankhen
Did they solve the problem of limited write cycles?
This was my question. iirc, this was one of the biggest hiccups in flash-based drives over the last 3 or 4 years. Even in CarPCs and nanoatx boards that could run off CF cards ran into this issue. I can see this plus a nicely sized hard drive in a laptop that only needs to run when mounted being a very nice combo.
Quote Firehed 10th January 2007, 04:08
Well the way that flash memory is written to now, killing it by overuse shouldn't be a large issue. Maybe it depends on the controller? Speed, however... I've yet to find any non-volatile storage that compares in sustained read to magnetic platters whizzing around (though, I'd bet the effectively nonexistant seek time compensates for it quite a bit).

But since when did notebooks use 1.8" drives? Last I knew, they all used 2.5", which would probably let you use at least twice as much flash storage in the drive (guessing based off of how big I know 2.5" drives to be and what I'd estimate fits in my iPod). Speaking of which, I'd love to see a 30GB flash iPod - when you're like me and put on several-hundred-MB files that are tens of hours long on a thoroughly fragmented drive, it can take upwards of a full minute before playing begins since it has to seek like mad.

Still, I'd need a lot more space. I'd love battery life, but I'm always having to delete stuff from my laptop to have enough space to do anything, and it's got an 80GB drive.
Quote lt paul 10th January 2007, 04:23
The old X41 tablets use 1.8GB hard drives. The new X60's use 2.5" drives though.
Quote modster 10th January 2007, 06:12
Quote:
Originally Posted by Firehed

But since when did notebooks use 1.8" drives? Last I knew, they all used 2.5", which would probably let you use at least twice as much flash storage in the drive (guessing based off of how big I know 2.5" drives to be and what I'd estimate fits in my iPod). Speaking of which, I'd love to see a 30GB flash iPod - when you're like me and put on several-hundred-MB files that are tens of hours long on a thoroughly fragmented drive, it can take upwards of a full minute before playing begins since it has to seek like mad.
i think you are right... ipod and other large storage jukebox use 1.8" drives. I can just imagine this thing in iPhone
Quote Paradigm Shifter 10th January 2007, 10:37
Some of the ultra-portables use 1.8" HDDs.

And not available? I'm sure I've already seen these listed on Scan... ah, OK, they're not quite the size of the Sandisk ones, but IDE compatible Flash drives are available. Kinda. They're really expensive, though...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=382429
Quote rupbert 10th January 2007, 10:57
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paradigm Shifter
Some of the ultra-portables use 1.8" HDDs.

And not available? I'm sure I've already seen these listed on Scan... ah, OK, they're not quite the size of the Sandisk ones, but IDE compatible Flash drives are available. Kinda. They're really expensive, though...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=382429

Ouch!
Quote Paradigm Shifter 10th January 2007, 11:05
My thoughts precisely. Especially given the fact that a 120GB 5400RPM 2.5" HDD is around the £65 mark. Flash might sound great, but it seriously needs to get cheaper...
Quote mikeuk2004 10th January 2007, 12:23
Sony has been using 16GB Flash Hard Drives for over 6 months now in their UX90 pocket Pc.

They have upgraded the Type U with the 32GB Flash drive from around September last year.

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/sony_vaio_type_u_now_with_32_gb_flash_memory.php

Also Sandisk has been working with Sony for a while now in creating faster flash cards upto 32GB.

http://www.techspot.com/news/23818-sony-and-sandisk-to-create-32gb-speedy-flash-cards.html
Quote Veles 10th January 2007, 15:54
This looks pretty damn awesome, increased battery life is always a plus, should cut the weight down a bit too I imagine.
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