hybrid hard drives
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Vista Premium logo requirements: no hybrid HDDs after all?
Ken Fisher over at Ars Technica has done us all a good turn and pored over the latest version of the mind-numbingly boring Windows Vista Logo Program Device Requirements documentation, summing up the key features that consumers can expect to see from machines sporting the Vista Premium logo. Effective immediately, PCs wishing to display the coveted sticker must rock only USB 2.0 ports, at least one digital output for all add-in video adapters, 100Mb Ethernet and/or WiFi (which must be of the 802.11g flavor), and HD audio quality that passes some kind of "high-fidelity audio experience test," with other requirements concerning Serial ATA drives, HDCP compliance, HD playback, and support for bootable USB drives going into effect on June 1, 2007. Also noteworthy in Fisher's analysis is his claim that hybrid hard drives will not in fact be necessary for laptops to flash the Premium logo, as previously reported by TG Daily based on a conversation with Microsoft at TechEd. Instead, Fisher argues that the so-called "Storage Requirement 0005" in question is only a list of technical standards that need to be met by hybrid HDDs should manufacturers choose to include them in their devices, which makes sense after considering how unlikely it is that Redmond would force such a new and unproven technology down people's throats.Read- Vista Premium logo requirements [Via Slashdot]Read- Hybrid HDDs not required after all
Laptop Vista Premium certification will require hybrid HDDs
Far from being a niche technology that just happens to fully thrive in Windows Vista, it turns out that those hybrid hard drives we've been following for some time will actually be required equipment for laptops wishing to sport the Vista Premium logo. TG Daily caught up with Microsoft's Windows Client Performance program manager Matt Ayres at TechEd 2006 to pin him down about recent updates to the Windows Logo Device Program Requirements, and sure enough, Ayres confirmed that the new wording does indeed mean that hybrid drives will be part-and-parcel of Premium-labeled mobile systems released after June 1, 2007. As you may or may not recall, these so-called ReadyDrive HDDs manufactured by Samsung, Seagate, and unnamed others offer up to 256MB of on-board flash memory for faster boot times and better battery life thanks to buffering that reduces the amount of necessary drive spinning.[Thanks, Mack S.]
