Terabyte Flash Memory

[Jopling]

I don't know where to put this, but here it goes...
I was speaking with an employee who works in Seagate's R&D department and he told me that they were currently working on a terabyte flash storage device. He didn't tell me anything about progress, but I'm sure its a long ways off and they probably have really high expectations so they at least get somewhere.

[Zwhaler]

Wow, that is really impressive (assuming it's true). I hope we can get those by 2010, I will be in the market for a new MBP then!

[psychofreak]

Wow, that is really impressive (assuming it's true). I hope we can get those by 2010, I will be in the market for a new MBP then!

I think they'll be about £600 by then...all right, but not cheap...

[Jopling]

Yeah right, in 3 years there is no way a terabyte of flash storage will be 600 quid let alone 600 usd

[CanadaRAM]

Of course they're working on it. Every memory manufacturer is. This is not news.

And companies are working on quantum storage, and optical transistors, and a bunch of other stuff. It takes years and decades to bring research to market however, and a lot of it never becomes practical for mass production.

[psychofreak]

Yeah right, in 3 years there is no way a terabyte of flash storage will be 600 quid let alone 600 usd

Why not £600? I think its entirely possible...

From here (http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_2119.html) (in 2004) :
The Sony 2 GB Microdrive (Model RHMD2G) is available now for a suggested retail price of $179, and the 4 GB Microdrive (Model RHMD4G) is available for a suggested retail price of $279.


Then look at what you can get on Amazon now (http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDMSPD-4096-A10M-Memory-Retail-Package/dp/B000FFISV8/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-0168072-7824935?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1180293102&sr=8-2), and tell me that we couldn't see that kind of massive drop :)

[PlaceofDis]

Why not £600? I think its entirely possible...

possible, well anything is possible. its just not very probable.
flash memory isn't going to be quite there in three years. we might be at half that by that time though.

[twistedlegato]

Thats gonna be rediculaly expensive!

A 60GB flash drive goes for $5,000

[Jopling]

If they are able to achieve the technology in that short of time its going to be something pretty radical and probably much more cost effective than today's flash drives. I don't think it will be at the same type of pricing as todays flash storage, it would be a whole new market where flash drives would be the main medium for storage, where now they are just used for portable drives mainly.

[psychofreak]

Thats gonna be rediculaly expensive!

A 60GB flash drive goes for $5,000

A 60GB Hard Disk Drive used to be a ridiculous idea...now its pretty mediocre...

[cube]

Flash disks are also slower for writing

[xlii]

Sandisk makes a 32GB flash drive which goes for ~$600. It is a drop-in replacement for a regular disk drive used in notebooks. Dell is now offering it on select notebooks as an option.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/01/04/sandisk.32gb.flash.drive/