Hitachi's new SSD withstands lots of overwrites

Those who live for nothing more than to cram their SSD to the brim with useless data, only to mass delete the bulk of it, rinse, and repeat, we've found the perfect drive for you. Hitachi ULSI Systems Co., a subsidiary of Hitachi, has reportedly "developed a solid state disk on which data can be overwritten 100 times more than is possible on a conventional product of that type." On the device, "data predicted to have a high overwrite frequency is stored on the DRAM and not sent to the flash memory, while information with low overwrite frequency is stored on the flash." Consequently, "overwrite frequency on the flash portion" is substantially less than that of traditional alternatives. According to the company, it will start shipping out samples next month, but there's no mention of a commercial launch date. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

[2MB @ Sep 28th 2007 11:01PM]

Please, someone tell me...

What is the difference between SSD and Flash memory?

Ive heard both terms used.

Also, will they be Macbook compatible?

(and note: I am an apple fanboy but I am not gonna start some mac vs pc debate. I jsut want to know if its good on my mac. K?)

[thethirdmoose @ Sep 28th 2007 11:55PM]

SSD = solid state disk
Flash Memory is solid state memory.
So an SSD is like a hard disk, but instead of magnetic platters, it has flash memory inside it.
All SSD's are flash memory, but flash memory is in a lot of things - memory cards, game consoles, SSD's, flash drives, etc. The advantages are that flash memory is smaller, quieter, faster, and runs cooler than hard drives, and doesn't need constant power like RAM. The disadvantages are the high costs and the limited number of read-write cycles (hence this research).
And yes, an SSD will probably work in your macbook. Macbooks use either SATA or IDE (i don't remember which), and SSD's will probably come in both flavors.

[Adam @ Sep 29th 2007 12:06AM]

Yea it would work in a MacBook as long as they make a laptop version...although I'm sure it will VERY expensive. I'd wait a little while. MacBooks use 2.5" SATA drives--which is pretty much the standard drive type used in laptops today.

[Adam @ Sep 29th 2007 12:08AM]

You can already get 2.5" SATA drives that fit in a MacBook, but once again--pretty expensive and less space as compared with traditional hard drives. I'd wait a while till the price drops (which is happening fairly quickly).

[Daryl Herbert @ Sep 29th 2007 12:21AM]

"All SSD's are flash memory"

That's not correct. There are other solid state memory technologies that can be used.

For instance, you can make an SSD out of DRAM. It's not a very good choice for a laptop (because it will constantly suck up power) but they've been used in servers for a long time. Here is an example:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/05/hyperos_dram_hard_drive_on_the_block/

There are other non-volatile solid state memory technologies in development. In a few years (or maybe more than a few) they will be common in SSDs.

[ethana2 @ Sep 29th 2007 2:46AM]

The real question is open specs. If they're closed, you're at their mercy. If it's software transparent, it should work with everything. If they're open, we should see some interesting things happening as the Windows, MacOSX, Linux, BSD, OpenSolaris, Haiku camps et cetetra all make their own drivers.

[SPONSORED LINKS @ Sep 28th 2007 11:13PM]

presumably the data will still get written before the machine is powered down? so it's just like adding RAM cache to harddrives?

but in event of power failure, you will still lose data? which was supposed to be one of the advantages over spinning disk drives? (albeit in a different scenario, i.e. mechanical failure)

lots of question marks there.

[JB87 @ Sep 28th 2007 11:48PM]

I was under the impression that flash memory wasn't something that wears out (I'd never read anything on the subject), but apparently that's not true. From the wiki page: "Another limitation is that flash memory has a finite number of erase-write cycles (most commercially available flash products are guaranteed to withstand 100,000 write-erase-cycles for block 0, and no guarantees for other blocks)"

What's special about this drive is that it apparently won't wear out until many, many more write-erase cycles are performed on it.

[Paul @ Sep 28th 2007 11:14PM]

so it doesn't allow more writes to the memory itself...it just makes better use of the memory...so the memory itself is the same...

[JohnTitor @ Sep 29th 2007 12:10AM]

you can make an SSD out of SD cards, just wont be as reliable, fast, or in this case, withstand as many overwrites

[Lowspeed @ Sep 29th 2007 12:14AM]

So it's basically this:
http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Storage/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2180&ProductName=GC-RAMDISK

Only they added some flash memory and algorithm to move the stuff when there's no power.

And they squeezed it in a smaller package.


--
packbuddy.com

[Daryl Herbert @ Sep 29th 2007 2:08AM]

It's like that, except that it also saves certain files directly to flash (if it thinks they will not be overwritten frequently). So it can achieve the same capacity as the Gigabyte product with less DRAM (which means less power use, smaller size, and less expensive to manufacture).

[Ricardo @ Sep 29th 2007 7:58AM]

Actually SSDs have now become Solid State Drives, because they don't actually have any kind of disk.

I think in like 1-2 years most notebooks on the market will have a viable SSD option. I would buy one, but today a 32 Gb SSD can cost as much as a cheap notebook.

[James @ Sep 29th 2007 9:21AM]

"Inspire the next"

Gotta love nonsensical Japanese slogans.

One of my favorites is for a Japanese delivery company.
Their slogan is "With your life"