aussie

Jesse in Japan

I've been watching solid-state storage chasing disk drives for quite a long time (anyone remember TI's "bubble memory" from the late '70s?); it gets better and better but it's always a bit behind.

snej

and about fucking time. loud, hot and slow. good riddence.

dj-kenpo

EQC

The SSDs must be made to a higher spec...

OddManOut

I can't say this for sure, but my best guess from an engineering standpoint is that its got a lot to do with memory addressing. For example if you put two flash chips in parallel, the memory locations in the chips are numbered the exact same, so calling one location would, by default, call the same location on both chips at the same time. If you use some sort of controller to use a bit that indicates which chip to use (0 for chip 'A' and 1 for chip 'B') it would really bog down that 30mps transfer rate. My unsure-ed-ness is stemming from the architecture. I am assuming the addressing is built into each chip. This is unlike hard disk drives where only data is stored on the platter and memory addressing is handled on a control board.

lightredfloyd

I'm not sure about that. I bought my first laptop 8 years ago, and it's still serving me well as a movie player hooked up to my HDTV and general Linux server at the moment.

I think that's what's great about old laptops - they make great lowpower/lowcost server machines. :)

FrancisC

you could turn off virtual ram but unless you have 8gb of ram in your notebook say goodbye to photoshop or any other app more intensive than firefox.

dj-kenpo

Darkest Daze

bobvilla

Skeptical_Geezer

I'd like to see an iPod with something like this before my computer. While I know I would see a huge benefit if I had it in my PC, I think I'd appreciate the improved battery life and decreased seek times on my iPod more.

Alternatively, it would be nice if somebody went down the SSD road and made a PMP that I could work with as an alternative to the iPod. Daddy needs more storage!

Sqube

So...ummm...just searched for the keyword "SSD" on NewEgg:

8GB = $226 or $179
4GB = $126

Yet, you can get great Corsair USB Flash-drives for:

16GB = $125 (after rebate)
8GB = $70-$95 (after rebate)
4GB = $50 max.

These USB drives have 30MB/s read/write rates...and I would imagine that if you ran a few chips in parallel, you should be able to get the 60MB/s that these new SSD's are claiming. So, the cost of the flash shouldn't be any higher -- you just need better controller circuitry to manage it. So why are the SSD's so highly priced? It doesn't seem like the technology should be double the price/GB of a USB drive, since you should be able to use the same flash chips. Why are SSD's so pricey? Just because they're "new" and not as ubiquitous as USB drives yet? Why can't I get a 32GB SSD with a 40-50MB/s read/write speed, using 2 of the 16GB chips stripped out of a thumb drive, for $300? [2x the price of a 16GB thumb drive, plus $50 extra for the additional hardware/circuitry]

EQC

Customer: There's no pricetag. How much will this cost me?
Salesperson: If you have to ask, then you don't need it, nor can you afford one. Begone!

ltcmurray

cfredrickson

JosWindu

TheWhiteEwok

FightOn

Lack

NOTHIN'

strider_mt2k

Very cool, and I want solid state drives in all my devices - but I'm not holding my breath on these. No way will they be even in sniffing distance of affordable.

cr0ft

Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E

Available in limited quantities. Order your today!
Just $5995.00 with free $399 Laptop (after rebate).

LOL.

aec007

but an extremely thin laptop would also be perfect for this.

MadColombian

killarclown

pharmboy