“Intel doesn’t enter markets gently. Its new high-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs) are expected to jolt a market currently dominated by Samsung, Toshiba, and SanDisk,” Brooke Crothers reports for CNET.
“At the moment, Intel offers small-capacity chip-level (what are called Thin Small Outline Packages or TSOPs) technology that provides end-product sizes ranging up to 16GB. But this modest line of products will get a big boost in the second quarter when Intel offers 1.8- and 2.5-inch SSDs ranging from 80GB to 160GB in capacity, said Troy Winslow, marketing manager for the NAND Products Group at Intel. Intel’s new SSDs will compete with Samsung, for example, which is slated to bring out a 128GB SSD in the third quarter,” Crothers reports.
“With new competition, drive speeds will jump. Currently, the fastest SSDs from companies like Samsung approach 100MB/second for reading data. ‘What I can tell you is ours is much better than that,’ Winslow said. Hard drives typically read data at about half this speed,” Crothers reports.
More in the full article here.
[Attribution: Electronista. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I wouldn’t mind seeing a hybrid SSD + HDD device in my notebook.
64 GB of Solid State Memory for OS/Apps + 400 GB of HDD for Media and such. That is, until a fully solid state solution became cheap enough for us mortals.
I finally saw a MacBook Air at my local Apple Store on Friday. Me want! Especially with a newer generation processor and a big, fast SSD-HD.
Could this be why apple cut it’s order of SSDs from it’s usual supplier? Nice
And the TSA (US airport “security”, and I use the word loosely) will still be confused because there is no hard disk in the computer.
http://www.michaelnygard.com/blog/2008/03/steve_jobs_made_me_miss_my_fli.html
@ OMG – Dude, you owned that first post. if you’re gonna do it, do it with enthusiasm. Good on ya.
@MPC Guy – Interesting idea for a hybrid drive, but it would need to fit into the space of a single 1.8″ or 2.5″ HDD form factor. Perhaps you could combine an iPod Classic 160GB drive with a 64GB SSD? If you place all the OS, apps and virtual memory on the SSD and move a lot of the space-hogging video and audio files to the iPod drive, then both space and performance should be adequate, I would think.
@KingMel
Just replace the battery with a second drive!
I don’t know why notebook owners feel like they need huge amounts of storage. I love my MacBook Air and it only has 80 Gb. It’s not like it’s difficult to transfer stuff on and off, and how much do you need while you’re away from your desktop?
Or peripherals for that matter.
Wum Dum Gai: I’m probably getting trolled here, but anyhow…
I do video editing work on the go, I often end up commuting and since hard drive space on laptops is constrained here’s how I do it.
I actually edit a low quality version of the video and use a custom app to transfer those edits to the high-res version on my desktop.
Works great and lets me do a lot more work on my laptop than I would otherwise, but I’d still rather have much more space.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> There will simply NEVER be enough hard drive space my friend.
I’m still waiting for ZFS and 2TB hard drives to become the norm so I can FINALLY set up my dream media server and move all DVDs onto it. Our DVDs are gonna go the same way our CDs did… as hard drive sizes continue to grow we’ll just start putting more things on it that we couldn’t before. NEVER enough space.
Note: They NEVER mention price.
So, don’t get too excited boys, unless you’ve got a nice, fresh white baby to sell for it!
>KingMel wrote: but it would need to fit into the space of a single 1.8″ or 2.5″ HDD form factor
Agreed. Luckily 2.5″ drives have already reached the 500 GB mark. Removing a platter and replacing it with solid-state memory may actually be possible. I can’t guess one way or another if it’d fast though as the OS would have to specifically support that hybrid functionality.
—
>Wun Dum Gai wrote: I don’t know why notebook owners feel like they need huge amounts of storage. I love my MacBook Air and it only has 80 Gb.
You’re right. No one would ever need more than 80GB ever. Ever!
My crystal ball says that Intel will one day develop one board with a full CPU and XXX GB of SSD memory. An all-in-one computer. With tight integration, they could make the thing fly.
If they are smart, they will socket the CPU and allow expansion of the RAM and SSD.