SSD

Make your own solid-state hard drive and save

No moving parts, shock resistant, and incredibly short seek time are some of many benefits you get from a solid-state hard drive. However, for now, the price for a SSD is so incredibly high that calling "insanely priced" might not be an over statement. It's hard to justify (or to afford for that matter) spending about $1,000 for only 64GB when you can pay about 10 percent of that cost for a regular 200GB laptop hard drive.

So how about making our own SSD?

Sans Digital just released the CR2T CompactFlash card enclosure that might make … Read more

Portege R500, now with 128GB solid-state drive

The eye-catching Portege R500, long one of our favorite ultraportable laptops, just got a little better. Tuesday morning, Toshiba announced the $2,999 Portege R500-S5007V, a new iteration of the remarkably thin laptop and the first portable to incorporate a 128GB solid-state drive.

To put it succinctly, we're psyched. Up to now, the biggest reservation we had about recommending solid-state drives was their relatively puny size, which pretty much required the purchase of an external hard drive to hold most of your media files--a tough expense to swallow after plunking down $3,000 (or more) on the laptop itself. … Read more

Introducing Solid State Hard Disks (SSDs)

I'm writing this posting on a laptop computer that is, literally, in my lap. As I type, the poor machine gets bounced around which is not at all good for the hard disk. I'm tempting fate, perhaps the computer equivalent of driving without a seat belt.

I would be much better off if the computer had a Solid State Hard Disk (SSD) rather than the traditional hard disk with rotating platters. Hard disks are amazing feats of technology, but they are moving mechanical devices and nothing good comes from bouncing them around, be it on your lap or … Read more

Western Digital reportedly working on 20,000rpm hard drive

While many are marking 2008 as the year of the solid-state hard drive, Western Digital seems to be saying if it doesn't spin, it's crap. The company is reportedly developing a 20,000rpm Raptor drive--double the rotational speed of its current Raptor lineup--to combat the increasing popularity of SSDs.

While a 20,000rpm drive might compete on performance with SSDs and offer greater capacity, it would seem to be moving in the opposite direction when it comes to energy efficiency--another chief benefit of the SSD set. Also, heat and noise concerns grow as the revolutions per minute increase. … Read more

Sun: 2008 'tipping point' for solid-state drives

2008 is the year of the solid state drive. That's what Sun Microsystems believes as reliability finally measures up to the rigorous requirements of server storage and the cost per gigabyte plunges.

On Wednesday, Sun announced that it is preparing to introduce solid-state drive (SSD) technology that "will completely change how server and storage infrastructure is designed and deployed in enterprise data centers." Sun said it is already shipping Solaris ZFS software "optimized" for SSDs.

Though Sun is not specifying suppliers, Intel confirms that it has collaborated with Sun on SSD development for servers. Intel … Read more

SanDisk, Intel, TDK launch solid state drives

If there was any doubt about the state of solid-state drives, Computex seems to be putting it to rest.

SanDisk, TDK, and Intel, among others, are announcing new solid-state drives while Asus is launching the Eee PC 1000 with a larger-capacity drive.

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are used increasingly instead of hard disk drives in small computers like the Asus Eee PC and devices like the Apple iPhone because SSDs use less power and are generally more rugged--due to the fact that they have no moving parts.

The Asus Eee PC 1000, for example, will be offered with SSDs up to … Read more

Solid-state drive prices to dive (think MacBook Air)

Future versions of the MacBook Air will pack larger-capacity but lower-cost solid-state drives, emblematic of the next generation of flash storage that will make a quick descent from current stratospheric pricing.

Today, a consumer pays dearly for a solid-state drive (SSD). For example, for only 64GB of SSD storage on the MacBook Air, a consumer must pay a premium of about $1,000 over the 80GB hard disk drive model.

But the cost per gigabyte of solid-state drive storage will drop as notebook PC makers like Apple switch to solid-state drives with capacities above 100GB based on multilevel cell (MLC) … Read more

Intel 32Gb flash sets stage for solid-state drives

On Thursday, Intel introduced a flash chip that stores more data, paving the way for its rollout of upcoming high-capacity solid-state drives.

The chipmaker, along with Micron Technology, announced a 32-gigabit (Gb) NAND memory device built on a 34-nanometer manufacturing process.

The smaller 34-nanometer process bests Toshiba, which recently said it has begun using a 43-nanometer process that will enable solid-state drives with capacities as large as 256GB.

And Samsung said last week that it is slated to bring out a 256GB solid-state drive later this year.

Intel's 32Gb chip will enable more cost-effective solid-state drives, "instantly doubling … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 733: Flying Poop Factory

That is, sadly, the new name for the International Space Station, where astronauts have a real problem to contend with, unlike the New Mexico folks trying to ban public Wi-Fi. In other news, Warner Music is backing a hilariously insane plan to get you to rent a song, one time, for 10 cents a pop, and it turns out that all those furious, ranty e-mails about Dell's terrible tech support were true! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 733

$20 Million Dollar Experiment to See if You’ll Rent a Song for 10 Cents http://michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=265… Read more

Samsung develops 256GB solid state drive

Samsung has developed one of the largest-capacity and highest-speed solid state drives to date.

CNET site ZDNet Korea reports that Samsung announced the development of a 2.5-inch, 256GB solid state drive (SSD) at the fifth annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei, Taiwan.

Typical solid state drives shipping in notebook PCs today have a storage capacity of 64GB.

With a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second and sequential write speed of 160MBps, Samsung is claiming some of the fastest SSD data transfer rates to date.

Like upcoming Intel SSDs, Samsung's drive will use multi-level cell (MLC) … Read more