heres a short but interesting read on flash hdd's

Shadow250 · Post by **Shadow250** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:42 pm

Line Blurs Between Flash, Hard Drives
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Jan 7, 8:26 PM (ET)

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The distinction between flash memory and hard disk drives are fading rapidly as the two storage mediums encroach one another's territory - including marked advances announced at the International Consumer Electronics Show Monday.

Makers of flash memory - known for its ruggedness, compact size and power efficiency - are introducing new, higher-capacity "solid state drives" for computers this week.

Meanwhile, makers of hard drives - known more for monster capacity than portability - are touting new models about the size of a CompactFlash memory card.

Flash drives have typically been used in portable gadgets like media players, cell phones and digital cameras.

Samsung Electronics Co. showed off a slim, solid-state drive designed for laptops and desktops that has a capacity of 128 gigabytes. It'll be one of the beefiest - if not the beefiest - model when it becomes available the first half of this year.

And flash-memory maker SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) unveiled a laptop drive with a 72 GB capacity that weighs about 30 percent less than a hard drive of the same dimensions.

Neither company disclosed a prices. But the drives are being targeted at high-end ultra-lightweight computers because since solid state drives are still relatively novel and expensive.

The developments sparked speculation Monday among bloggers that Apple Inc. (AAPL) might announce a new, smaller notebook using Samsung's solid-state drive at next week's Macworld trade show in San Francisco.

Samsung also unveiled 30 GB and 40 GB versions of a 1.3-inch hard disk that fits in a CompactFlash drive. That's a record-breaking capacity for a storage component that size, Samsung said.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20080108/D8U1D3O00.html

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:59 am

I sure can't wait for them to come out at a reasonable price. Especially for laptops. It kills me to have to turn mine on while on the road to check a map & wait a minute for it to boot.

Shadow250 · Post by **Shadow250** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:40 pm

i wanna get one to put in my gaming rig. the 4-8 gig ones are too small too bother with, but 128 gigs would be sweet.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:06 pm

I'd be happy with 64gb, but yeah, 128gb is definately the sweet spot.

TheSovereign · Post by **TheSovereign** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:27 am

ive been using flash hard drives for quite some time now

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:56 am

Heh, I am sure, Compact Flash right?