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ssd
Posts Tagged “
Solid-State
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ssd
tests
Tom's Hardware Corrects Study, Says Solid State Drives Do Improve Battery Life
Tom's Hardware tested battery life in laptops with SSDs yet again and found that they aren't such a power suck, correcting a previous study. SSDs didn't outperform their HDD counterparts in all tests, but combined with Laptop Mag's study I think we can safely put the issue to rest for now. [Tom's Hardware]
ssds
Samsung Starts Mass Production of Cheap 128GB MLC Solid State Drives
We mentioned it back in February, and Samsung has now come good with its promise, announcing today that it's started mass-production of 128GB SSDs. They're of the slightly slower but cheaper multi-level cell technology, with a read speed of 90MBps and write speed of 70MBps. And Samsung claims they'll have a life span around "20 times longer than the generally accepted 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive." It'll be interesting to see what this move does to the price of SSDs, particularly now that we like them again. Press release below. More »
ssd
New Study Says Solid State Drives Are Better for Battery Life, Not Worse
I hope this SSD good/bad theme doesn't turn into one of those long-running "good for you/bad for you" food fiascoes (is coffee on the good list again, by the way? Blogging is thirsty work.) A new bit of investigation by Laptopmag seems to challenge the Tom's Hardware study that put SSD's battery performance in the shade. Citing flaws in the original method, the new study tried the drives under a more "real world use" test regime: cycling through webpages over and over. More »
macbook air
MacBook Air With Solid State Drive Gets $500 Price Cut
Apple just ripped $500 off the price tag of their Solid State Drive-based MacBook Airs, which are now $2598, down from $3098. AppleInsider says the cuts came from two components, the 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, which got a $100 cut, and the 64GB SSD, which got a $400 cut. The sub-$3000 bill should be slightly more appetizing to fans of light laptops. And fans of money. [Apple Store via Apple Insider]
rumor smashed
Swindled: Solid State Drives Don't Extend Battery Life, They Shorten It
Solid state drives (SSDs) are the inevitable future of mobile computing, but a new experiment by Tom's Hardware is extremely disappointing. It ends up that the touted power savings of SSDs over their moving-parts-laden cousins are nonexistent. In fact, SSDs are sucking more power than conventional hard drives. How is this possible? Tom's Hardware thinks they know. More »
ssd
Sub-$500 128GB Drive from OCZ May be the SSD You've Been Saving For
OCZ's new Core Series SSD's are designed to be large and affordable. So the new 2.5-inch SATA II flash drives are coming in 128GB, 64GB and 32GB sizes at $479, $259 and $169 respectively. They don't match up to the 200Mbps read speeds Samsung has promised—managing 135Mbs— but that price point is pretty low. And while they're too big to drop into the smallest laptops (MacBook Air owners will weep), they might be just the ticket for people looking to cheaply upgrade to SSD—OCZ claim ten times faster than their HDDs and half the power. Available "soon." Press release below. More »
camcorders
Sony has upgraded its HDR-CX7 flash-based camcorder to include face-recognition technology and Smile Shutter, which automatically takes a still picture as soon as the subject switches to full beam. The camera records in full HD at a resolution of 920 by 1080 pixels, and has a 10-megapixel camera for still shots. There's image stabilization, and you control the camcorder merely by tapping the 2.7-inch LCD screen. Full press release for the $900 camera, available in August, plus a bonus shot, is after the jump.
More »
Sony HDR-CX12 HD AVCHD Camcorder Has Face-Recognition Technology
Sony has upgraded its HDR-CX7 flash-based camcorder to include face-recognition technology and Smile Shutter, which automatically takes a still picture as soon as the subject switches to full beam. The camera records in full HD at a resolution of 920 by 1080 pixels, and has a 10-megapixel camera for still shots. There's image stabilization, and you control the camcorder merely by tapping the 2.7-inch LCD screen. Full press release for the $900 camera, available in August, plus a bonus shot, is after the jump.
More »
modding eee pc
$3,200 EeePC with 32GB Solid State Drive Now on eBay
Ah, the Asus Eee PC, the little computer that can be modded to do anything, from stealing all your money in an ATM to grabbing all your money on the internet. This one will snatch $3,200 from your account if you want to buy it on eBay, with all the mods except for the 3G card: a 32GB Patriot XT solid state drive (in addition to the included 8GB), a touchscreen and a bunch of other things, an Air Play card to transmit all your sound to any FM radio. Complete specs after the jump. More »
storage
Century DIY SSD Now Goes Up to 2TB (in Theory)
While both Intel and Samsung are promising big drops in SSD prices by the year's end for now they still cost plenty. Unless you want to take the DIY route, and use this nifty gizmo from Century which uses compact flash cards for storage. The new version now accepts CF 3x cards and can create drives between 2GB and a crazy (and impossible, for now) 2TB in size. So you could buy a pair of 32GB CF cards for around $270, add in $192.57 for the DIY drive and you'd have a 64GB SATA SSD for about $460— less than half the cost of the 64GB MacBook Air's drive. Not bad, eh? Available from May 1st. [GeekStuff4U via Akihabaranews]
panasonic
Panasonic HPX-170 P2 Camera is Solid State, HD, Handheld
NAB in Las Vegas saw the unveiling of Panasonic's HPX-170 P2 solid-state camera. The 1080p camcorder has the widest zoom lens in its class, a 13x Leica Dicomar with 28mm wide-angle setting, and an SDI interface, all in a 4.2-pound body. Full press release of the HPX-170 P2 after the jump. More »
future tech
Video: RSD5 Solid State Fan In Action
Yesterday, we posted about the RSD5 Solid State Fan from Thorrn Micro Technologies. Today, we have a video of the fan in action along with additional insight from one of the creators. The more I learn (and watch) about the RSD5, the more impressed I become. Thorrn Micro says the research is complete and expect the RSD5 to be ready for market by 2009.
Yesterday, 
future tech
Microchip-sized Solid State Fan Actively Cools Laptops With No Moving Parts
Engineers at Thorrn Micro Technologies have created a solid state fan for portable gadgets that is one-fourth the size and two to three times more powerful than a comparable mechanical fan. The RSD5 fan, which is roughly the size of a microchip, is said to be extremely thin, silent, and powerful and current prototypes can effectively cool a 25-watt processor. More »
ssd
Toshiba Dynabook SS RX1 Laptop First to Have 128GB SSD, Apparently
Toshiba's Dynabook SS RX1 now has an optional 128GB solid state drive built in, which Toshiba is claiming as a world first. It certainly beats the MacBook Air's SSD option, and is similarly slender, plus it squeezes in an optical drive. It has a 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel graphics and a 12.1-inch 1280 x 800 pixel screen, and a claimed battery life of 12.5 hours, which seems huge. It's also configurable without the SSD but with an 80GB hard drive and a CDMA card for mobile internet goodness. Available from April in Japan at first, for around $4,000. [Ascii]
storage
Intel Bringin' SSD Drama: 160GB Capacity, 50% Price Drop
We already told you about Intel's new ultramobile SSDs, but their tiny size means high cost and low capacities, only up to 16GB. That's why the company promised SATA-II SSDs in the 1.8" and 2.5" sizes with capacities up to 160GB, with read and write speeds exceeding Samsung's 100MB/s and 70MB/s, respectively. Best of all, Intel says its goal is to drive down the currently exorbitant prices of solid-state storage to something less punitive, predicting two subsequent 50% drops in 2009 and 2010. [Daily Tech]
ces 2008
Ridata Intros 128GB SATA SSDs, Speeds Past Competition
Ridata introduced three SSDs today, in 32-, 64-, and 128GB capacities. We've seen SSDs this large before, but Ridata claims 170MB/sec read and 105MB/sec write speeds, blowing out their recent competition. Full release after the jump. More »
Sony VAIO TZ Laptop Gains 64 GB of SSD Storage
The Sony VAIO TZ was already a sweet computer before getting a 64 GB SSD inside. Now it has 314 GB of storage in all (64 GB SSD+250 GB HDD) and sells for $3600.
The Sony VAIO TZ was already a sweet computer before getting a 64 GB SSD inside. Now it has 314 GB of storage in all (64 GB SSD+250 GB HDD) and sells for $3600.
giz explains
