I actually think the new iMacs are cool
What is new is that in addition to being able to create a RAID logical drive, you can now create a Fusion logical drive. Apple want to sell you a physical drive that has both the components needed in a single physical drive (hybrid).
Becomes if two things are fused...
As setting it up requires using Terminal etc I wouldn't say this is something a non techie could do 'safely'. If one was going to try to do it, a backup would most definitely be in order because chances are the data will get screwed at least a couple of times before it all gets set up right.
OK, this has been said in various ways already but I'm hoping to make it a little clearer.
Macs have the capability of creating a logical dive out of several physical drives (i.e. RAID) and the capability of creating multiple logical drives out of one physical drive (partitioning)
What is new is that in addition to being able to create a RAID logical drive, you can now create a Fusion logical drive. Apple want to sell you a physical drive that has both the components needed in a single physical drive (hybrid). What this guy did was figure out that you can build your own physical drive (in this case an internal SSD and a USB HDD) and OS X will treat it the same as if it were a purchased hybrid drive.
So Apple is not selling any "Fusion Drives", they are selling hybrid drives that will be recognized as logical fusion drives.
So the article is correct because he did create a "fusion drive" which is a logical drive created in OS X that uses a combination of an SSD and a HDD. Now what will be interesting is to see if someone can actually do this with a hybrid drive. This may be more difficult since there is a single controller in the drive and to make a fusion drive as this fellow has done you really need two controllers that OS X can access to determine what is the SSD part and what is the HDD part. But, maybe someone smarter than me will figure it out.
I know the chances of an "FusionDrive" app making it into the store is a long shot. But a third party could make an app to handle the command-line stuff, yes?
As I have thought about this more, I'm betting that Apple is not installing hybrid drives at all in the new iMacs. The most likely scenario is that they are soldering SSD memory in and putting a separate HDD and creating a logical hybrid drive using the two separate controllers. When iFixit does the teardown, I'll be proven right or wrong.
Ok, so if we can "roll our own" Fusion drive, we should be able to use a hybrid HDD in place of a standard HDD, since it appears like a standard HDD to the OS, right?
If so, that should result in even better performance, correct?
Possibly, but there might be diminishing returns having two levels of controllers trying to optimize by moving data around. It shouldn't hurt anything, because like you said, hybrid drives appear to the OS as a normal drive and the optimization routines happen on the drive's controller, but the data stored on the HDD is the less used data anyway, so this is unlikely to provide any significant increase in performance
I know the chances of an "FusionDrive" app making it into the store is a long shot.
As I have thought about this more, I'm betting that Apple is not installing hybrid drives at all in the new iMacs.
The most likely scenario is that they are soldering SSD memory in and putting a separate HDD and creating a logical hybrid drive using the two separate controllers.
If you store your system and applications on your SSD, and your iTunes library, your Photo libraries, your Video and Media files on your Hard Drive, there is no need for this "Fusion" system. I like the way my system works as it is, I don't want the system "moving" files between the two drives and slowing things down. My system is fast as lightning!
As I have thought about this more, I'm betting that Apple is not installing hybrid drives at all in the new iMacs. The most likely scenario is that they are soldering SSD memory in and putting a separate HDD and creating a logical hybrid drive using the two separate controllers. When iFixit does the teardown, I'll be proven right or wrong.
Edit: tipp and madmax caught my error while I was typing this.
It is known that there are 2 different physical locations for the HDD and SSD (I posted the diagram above), plus the iMacs can be configured with 1 or the other, or both. All signs point to 2 separate drives with separate controllers.
So Apple is not selling any "Fusion Drives", they are selling hybrid drives that will be recognized as logical fusion drives.
Isn't this called a seagate XT and has been out for over a year??
nice
can we use USB 3 and have the SSD as an external drive?
Isn't this called a seagate XT and has been out for over a year??