George Macdonald wrote:

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 18:32:22 -0500, daytripper
wrote:

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:24:38 -0500, George Macdonald
wrote:

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 19:51:27 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:

George Macdonald wrote:
Two different initiatives though: the HDD mfrs are trying to extend
the life of rotating platter systems; Intel's Robson is a fast startup
"technology" http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123053,00.asp.


Well, flash isn't going to extend the life of the platters, it's only
good for the fast startup. In order to extend platter life you'd need
ram mostly.

I did not mean reduce wear of the platters but extend the lifetime of
hard disks in general as a mass storage solution, i.e. delay the switch
over to
flash as a replacement for hard disks. It gets them a foot in the door
with the technology too... hopefully, from their POV, fending of Sandisk
et.al. from taking over the mass storage market eventually.

Until cost per bit for flash at least enters the same arena as magnetics -
never mind approaches parity - I doubt the magnetic media companies are
all that worried about flash encroaching in their bread-and-butter
markets...

Not wholly for a while yet of course but as interface/burst speeds go up
way beyond off-the-platter speeds, if a hybrid is on the cards in the
interim, I'm sure they'd rather be the ones selling the bits.

They get their cut regardless--the only way some outfit that is not a hard
disk manufacturer could make such a thing is to start with a hard disk
bought from one of the manufacturers.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)