Flash based storage.

[SquareHead]

So I was reading through Tom's Hardware, and even though flash storage is not new by any means, would anyone think of using this in a setup. 32 gig isnt big, and ata/66 isnt all that fast, but I could see where this would be most useful.

[Nightcrawler]

I believe that this technology will eventually be the successor to hard drives. It's just still too expensive, but it will come down with time. Hard drives are growing very large, but there speed is still pretty poor as opposed to everything else in the computer. It's the weak link for many computing tasks.

However, I wouldn't buy this unit just yet. I don't know why they handicapped it at ATA66. That's an outdated standard now. Maybe it's unreliable at higher speeds? It's clear that it can max out ATA66, so why cap it at that?

It would be a more serious contender with ATA133 or even SATA300 which could REALLY ramp up performance assuming it was able to max out those standards as well.

It's tempting, but I just don't think it's time yet. This technology isn't quite ready.

[PFUNK]

I remember reading in an article out in the internet somewhere a limitation to flash storage. Namely, there are a certain number of times data may be written to flash storage before it breaks down. So on the one hand there's that, but on the other, conventional hard drives will fail over time as well (due to their mechanical writing design).

Correct me if I'm wrong, of course, but which of the two will eventually prove longest lasting?

[whicker]

I remember reading in an article out in the internet somewhere a limitation to flash storage. Namely, there are a certain number of times data may be written to flash storage before it breaks down.

I'm surprised this isn't "common knowledge" yet.

Depends on the size and depth and material that makes up the storage cells. Typically they are rated for 100, 10 thousand, or 1 million write cycles. You can destroy a flash memory cell in less than a second by just constantly erasing and writing to that cell.

One can already take a Compact Flash drive and use it as a HDD with an adapter. Search for "Compact Flash to IDE adapter". I just wish Microsoft would release XP embedded for a desktop PC (that will never happen) to avoid the whole write durability issues.

[Mr. Business]

From what I gather, solid-state hard drives can be purchased right now, albeit for a hefty sum.

[AntoineWG]

From what I gather, solid-state hard drives can be purchased right now, albeit for a hefty sum.

But they all have their drawbacks. They're either based on SDRAM, which will lose its data if it loses power, or flash, which wears out after about a million write cycles.

[Starman Ghost]

That's pretty nifty.