Flash

With Intel's announcement and Samsung's latest product concept at CeBIT, it seems that solid-state hard drive laptops are on the horizon.

In the announcement, Intel has made it clear that NAND flash hard drives will be debuting in laptops within a year. To summarize what this is, NAND flash drives are memory units very similar to ram and usb key chain drives. They have an array of advantages over traditional spinning disc hard drives that we're used to.

The first is that they're non-volatile -- meaning they don't need power to maintain the information, unlike DRAM (the RAM on your motherboard) which purges information in the absence of electricity.

Second, they have much better shock resistance which is a great advantage for laptops. With NAND flash, premium features such as head locking isn't needed.

Third, the amount of energy required to power these devices is an order of magnitude less than traditional hard drives. This means that batteries in laptops will last a lot longer.

Fourth, the reduced energy requirement and the elimination of mechanical friction heat greatly reduces the heat output of laptops, meaning you won't be burning your legs.

Fifth, these flash chips are similar to DRAM in that information is instantly available. With traditional hard drives, information is seeked -- rather the head has to move back and forth across the disc to access the information "sector" before transferring it to the DRAM and CPU. This means a significant increase in hard drive speeds, and the overall experience should feel "snappier." The time required to open applications and locate and save files should take much less time too.

Ok, so what are the disadvantages? Well, there are two main ones. First, these chips are expensive. Second, they have less capacity than traditional drives. Current 32 gigabyte drives are running at $900 a piece, which well sucks. But over the past fews years, flash drives prices have dropped significantly and will continue to do so.

Hopefully by next year, the disadvantages will have been eliminated and I can get my eight hour MacBook laptop that doesn't keep me awake at night because its hard drive loves to "seek" every thirty seconds (it makes noise).

Tags: Laptops, Hard Drives, Technology, & Intel