Hybrid Harddrives

[mayorredbeard]

I haven't been on toms hardware in what seemed like ages, so decided to head over and give a looksy at the articles. A link to the article: http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/03/17/hybrid_hard_drives_from_samsung_microsoft/

I had a couple questions about the use of flash memory as cache in a harddrive. If flash memory reads faster, wouldn't it make more sense to have a purely flash memory harddrive.

Secondly, isn't it more then just bad ethics, but illegal, to pretty much bully companies into using these hybrid harddrives if microsoft goes through with this plan?

And thirdly, how come their arent any mass storage devices in flash memory. Like 10-20 gb, as like backup storage or something?

 

[Half Evil]

Well.. I think its really expensive for flash hard drives. Thats why their only like 4gb now.. Max, i've seen at least.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Yes, it would make sense to use flash memory for storage but consider the price. Static RAM is very, very expensive and to produce something in gigs as standard storage for files wouldn't be cost effective as current hard drive technology.

 

[Half Evil]

Im sure in the future their will be a much more cost effective way of making these, and it will become the new standard.

 

[G35x]

Nope, 16gb is the biggest check out the price..Think im going to buy one sike...

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=51798421&pfp=BROWSE

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Hopefully as RAM technology matures further, it will have to come down in price. It will. Eliminating mechanial functions in a storage device would significantly increase performance. Standard RAM and multi gig flash drives are so still high in cost as compared to a mechanical hard drive that's in the 120GB range. Imagine a flash RAM that is 120GB also. Cost would be huge. AMD did a great job of integrating a RAM controller into their CPU. That's probably one of the reasons why it cost a bit more than Intel CPUs.

 

[Half Evil]

Nope, 16gb is the biggest check out the price..Think im going to buy one sike...

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=51798421&pfp=BROWSE

My god..

/jawdrop

 

[TRDCorolla1]

That sure is a ridiculous high price.

 

[G35x]

Right i can buy a computer for that...But good for some buisnees people i guess

 

[mayorredbeard]

i guess thats why we dont have massive flash memory storage... lol
But in terms of the future for the use of flash memory as cache, does anyone think it has a real chance of taking off? And isn't this bullying technique that microsoft intends to use to implement this new technology illegal? I mean their pretty much forcing other companies to sell a product.