Gizmodo: hybrid hard drive

LG R400 Laptop: Say Hi to the Latest Hybrid

www.gizmodo.com — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:45:35 EST

Samsung may have got there first, but now fellow Koreans LG have joined the race to be at the forefront of the hybrid hard drive market with their R400. Online stores are already taking orders for the laptop, which boots machines using a flash-based non-volatile cache. As well all the normal hybrid benefits (longer-lasting laptops, quieter machines and less energy used) data processing will be three times as fast.

Other features include a 14.1-inch widescreen display, two wireless antennae, integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam, and BlueCore 4, a variant of Bluetooth 2.0. Estimated date of arrival is March 30 and it will set you back a smidgeon over $1,000. – Ad Dugdale

UPDATE: Those lovely people at LG have set us straight. One, the image above is not the R400. Two, the R400 does not have a hybrid HDD. Three, they do have plans to release a laptop with hybrid HDD, but they haven't yet decided when. Apologies for the mistake.

Product Page [Online Electronics via The Inquirer]

Apple To Put Solid State NAND Memory Into Laptops By 2007?

Jason Chen — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:42:18 EDT

After the Vista hybrid hard drive news this week, some fat cat Wall Street analysts have been wondering whether Apple will go ahead and place some NAND Solid State Disks (SSD) into their laptops as well. After all, Apple's got the sweet deal with Samsung and their NAND facilities, which resulted lowering the prices of memory for Apple's iPod Nano. Could they finagle the same type of deal for Samsung's Hybrid Hard Drives?

The same analysts also thought that Apple is currently working on an ultra-portable PC, and the NAND memory could fit quite snugly into those as well. Both of these are estimated to be released in 2007 at MacWorld. We'll find out soon enough. – Jason Chen

Apple seen delivering "ultra-portable" at Macworld [AppleInsider via i4u]

Windows Vista Premium Laptops To Require Hybrid Hard Drives

Jason Chen — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:26:15 EDT

If you're planning on buying a laptop with Windows Vista Premium next year, you're going to have to pay a little extra for something you may not need. That something: a hybrid hard drive.

Starting June 1 2007, Microsoft is making hybrid hard drive mandatory for laptops to contain the "Vista Premium" Logo. For hard drive makers that don't currently have hybrid drives, Microsoft will help them get set up with a partner to introduce one for use in laptops. So far Seagate and Samsung are the only two manufacturers to make hybrid drives.

If you've already purchased a laptop that's capable of running Vista, there should probably be no problem in buying a copy of the new OS and upgrading your machine. – Jason Chen

TechEd 2006: Hybrid hard drives to become Vista Premium requirement [TG Daily via eHomeUpgrade]

Samsung To Announce Vista Compatible Hybrid Hard Drive

Jason Chen — Sun, 07 May 2006 12:56:39 EDT

Not exactly like the 32 GB Flash drive that Samsung rolled out in March, the hybrid hard drive (HHD) is a combination flash and standard hard disk that's going to be used to cut down boot times of laptops and PCs.

Microsoft's new Windows ReadyDrive will be reintroduced May 24th to take advantage of these new types of drives at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference—they were announced last WinHEC as a project code-named "Piton". The drives and the software should be out around the time Vista is launched, since they've been tailoring the drives for use in the new OS.

What does this means to you? Well, if you have one of these drives with Vista, expect to boot really, really fast. Great for the living room Media Center machines that are going to be built on Vista.

Instant Booting Comes Close to a Reality [The Korea Times]