Samsung clears the way for 16GB flash disks

[MacBytes]

Category: News and Press Releases
Link: Samsung clears the way for 16GB flash disks (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20040921112017)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by Mudbug

[g4cubed]

I think this is great news especially this:

The company also made an announcement that it has developed the world's first 2-gigabyte double-data-rate dynamic random access memory(DDR DRAM) chip with an 80-nano design rule. It is the most common type of memory used in computers.

[Wonder Boy]

but what is the signifigance in relation to apple? 16 gigs? what would apple use these for?

[milzay]

Correct me if im wrong, but im pretty sure that would be used in the iPod Mini. I think thats great news, the current data capacity is just a little to low for me, but this perfect.

[dotnina]

Correct me if im wrong, but im pretty sure that would be used in the iPod Mini. I think thats great news, the current data capacity is just a little to low for me, but this perfect.

Nope, both of the iPods use mini hard drives, not flash.

[g4cubed]

but what is the signifigance in relation to apple? 16 gigs? what would apple use these for?
If I'm not mistaken they can be used in a variety of things including thumb drives. And with that much storage available there goes external hard drives.
I wonder if the iPod would switch to this for greater storage and less weight.

[eric_n_dfw]

Nope, both of the iPods use mini hard drives, not flash. But I'd bet they'd switch to flash memory if it's fast enough. No moving parts and (I think) lower power consumption.

[dotnina]

If I'm not mistaken they can be used in a variety of things including thumb drives. And with that much storage available there goes external hard drives.
I wonder if the iPod would switch to this for greater storage and less weight.

True, they can be used in thumb drives ... though at last check, Apple doesn't make any. ;)

I don't think 16 gigs is enough for people to abandon external hard drives. Lots of external hard drives are in the 100 gig+ range, so it'll be a while until flash catches up ... even when it does catch up in size, though, it'll need to catch up in speed.

BTW there's another thread on a similar topic right now http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=89798

[shamino]

I don't think 16 gigs is enough for people to abandon external hard drives. Lots of external hard drives are in the 100 gig+ range, so it'll be a while until flash catches up ... even when it does catch up in size, though, it'll need to catch up in speed.
Flash can never replace a hard drive for some applications - like swap disks. Flash has a limited number of write-cycles. When you use them up, the flash becomes useless.

I know people who installed operating systems on flash media, only to find that it became unusable after a few months, due to the millions of disk-write operations used for swapping.

You can, of course, disable swapping in your OS if you have enough memory, but that's generally considered a bad idea - if you actually do use up your RAM, you really don't want your apps aborting with out-of-memory errors. And temp file storage can also rip through flash's write cycles pretty quickly (although not as fast as swap files.)

[shamino]

The article talks about 16G flash devices, but in what form factor?

Packing 16G of flash into a 3.5" hard drive's case is no big deal and is probably doable with last year's chips. Probably also doable in a 2.5" form factor.

It will be substantially harder to pack it into a PCMCIA card. Harder still for Compact Flash. And nothing short of miraculous to pack it into an SD or xD card.

[Bendit]

Most importantly - they can probably fit 8GB in half the size.

[Fender2112]

WOW :D

[iMeowbot]

The article talks about 16G flash devices, but in what form factor?

They are really talking about 1 chip with 8 gigabits, (1 gigabyte), so it could be fairly small. They don't mention actual chip sizes, but it might be possible to cram 16 into a CF factor with some creative packaging, and it should be fairly strightforward to fit into a PC Card form. More interesting will be to see how much these suckers cost in relation to disk storage.

[macridah]

If it's a flash drive, then there is no moving parts. This means that if apple uses this in their mini's, they'll have better skip protection .... and it'll have more storage capacity.

[iMeowbot]

More info...

Original Samsung press release (http://www.samsung.com/PressCenter/PressRelease/PressRelease.asp?seq=20040920_0000069993&type=DeviceSolutionNews).

These chips are not immediately available, and indeed the "previous" generation (4 Gb) will only enter mass production next year. This 8Gb part is something to look for around 2006.

Also of note is that the ZDnet article reports the chip capacity incorrectly by an order of magnitude. They are saying that these flash chips can hold 8 gigabytes but that is not what Samsung are claiming.

[Bendit]

If it's a flash drive, then there is no moving parts. This means that if apple uses this in their mini's, they'll have better skip protection .... and it'll have more storage capacity.

Skip protection isn't an issue anymore. The only benefit would be possibly less power consumption and less moving parts = more reliable.

[wrldwzrd89]

Skip protection isn't an issue anymore. The only benefit would be possibly less power consumption and less moving parts = more reliable.
Don't forget about cost! Flash devices are quite expensive, especially as the capacity increases to 1GB and up. The cost factor is the biggest reason why Apple wouldn't use these in iPods.

PS: My fingers sure are tired after typing my 50th post in one day!

[katanna]

"I don't think 16 gigs is enough for people to abandon external hard drives."

Flash will never take over external hard drives. I have two 80 GB drives, and they are both getting kinda full. I do a lot of video editing, and 16 is no where near what I need!

"That 16GB of memory translates into storage of up to 16 hours of DVD quality video"

Maybe, but when I edit raw video, it is over 4 gigs an hour...

Matthew