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Intel's Z68 Chipset to Bring SSD Caching to Sandy Bridge

velocityg4 said:
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This has limited uses. Enthusiasts will be disappointed by the SSD size in hybrids and just use separate SSD and platter HD. For the average consumer the 64GB should be the standard and only drive in a computer.

Most people's total files do not take up more than a DVD. The vast majority of space is taken by apps and OS.
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Stanford's free iPhone Development course is 14.87 GB. There are plenty of other courses on iTunes University of similar size. The free Librivox recording of War and Piece is 2 GB. A good camera will take pictures of > 20 MB. One hour of MiniDV recording is about 10 GB.
 
gnasher729 said:
Stanford's free iPhone Development course is 14.87 GB. There are plenty of other courses on iTunes University of similar size. The free Librivox recording of War and Piece is 2 GB. A good camera will take pictures of > 20 MB. One hour of MiniDV recording is about 10 GB.
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I totally agree. My iTunes music library alone is 64gigs! Add to that apps, video and digital pictures....um...seriously...To say that the average user doesn't need more than a 64gig HD is kinda ridiculous in today's day and age.

I know we are all suppose to be moving to the "cloud"....and storing all our files there....but still...that's a ways off, and even then, people will be storing lots of stuff on their HDs.
 
Sounds good...

This makes a lot more sense than those ridiculous dedicated SSD rumors. Hopefully , though, SSD prices simply fall to the point where a hybrid solution isn't necessary.
 
What should I do?!

Hello,

This summer I want to buy a Mac, its the 15" Core i7 2.2Ghz.
I want to buy it in July.

Please can someone tell me what to do, should I then buy it or wait for the revamp or the refresh? I don't know it anymore.

Its my first Mac and you are the experts.
 
Why do we need a new chipset to support SSD Caching? It seems like this could be done with software on the OS level... Windows can already do this, can't it?
 
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wizard said:
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Newfiebill said:
Cabbit said:
Give em 5 years and we'll have a computer on a chip from intel for laptops complete with storage, graphics, processing, memory, and several thunderbolt ports.
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One of the major functions of a Thunderbolt Port is daisy chaining devices, which means, you would only ever need ONE (1) Thunderbolt Port.
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No!

One TB port may be fine for a laptop but but a couple of years down the road and desktops will find the need for more than one port. Laptops may never have that need but that is no surprise.

As to daisy chaining that is only good up to six devices. Even at 10GBits per second you still have the potential to run into congestion on a port. It wouldn't take much for solid state drives to plug the pipes. I see a high potential for multiple ports on desktop machines.

As to Apples plans who knows? One thing that is obvious is that the TB chip is awfully big. This leads me to wonder about the systems structure and unseen capabilities. If the chip is a cross bar of some sort then it likely has some unused ports right now. It is to bad the details are so hard to get.
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That's true, but if TB is to replace USB, FireWire, displayport, ethernet and all of those things you would still need a few of them on a laptop, because if I plug in a tb mouse and then want to sync my iPod, I wouldn't Want to be forced to daisy chain those and then unplug them both just to do such a basic task?

Might be good for extending an external display that can chain a few devices, but if there is only going to be one port I can assure you that you'd be using a hub and not daisy chaining.
 
MacRumors said:



095114-intel_z68.jpg


VR-Zone reports (via Hardmac) that Intel has begun production of its new "Z68" chipset for Sandy Bridge-based processors, with availability set for May. Most notably in light of rumors regarding the new MacBook Pro that failed to materialize, the Z68 chipset will support Intel's Rapid Storage Technology SSD caching.SSD caching marries a conventional hard drive to a relatively small solid-state drive (SSD), with the most frequently-accessed data automatically placed on the SSD for fast access while the two drives appear to users simply as a single drive. The functionality serves to bring users much of the speed benefit of SSDs but with the storage capacity and lower cost of traditional hard drives.


095158-intel_z68_slide.jpg


Several rumors in the days leading up to last week's MacBook Pro refresh claimed that the updated models would offer a dedicated SSD to host the operating system and other essential files. The claims did not, however, come to fruition.

Article Link: Intel's Z68 Chipset to Bring SSD Caching to Sandy Bridge
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So, what this basically means is that the original rumor about this feature wasn't false, it was just for the wrong Mac and that the first Mac with it will likely be this next iMac (with it likely trickling down to non-ultraportable ultraportables by the time the NEXT MacBook Pro refresh occurs). Cool.
 
dun dun dun imac and mac pro probably would have it. and ssd price drop almost 80-100 than the year before
 
zin said:
But we don't want an Intel HD 3000 in our new iMacs.
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That's not what this post is about. Read more carefully next time! :p

(Though, in case you were curious, the desktop versions of the CPUs work so that the onboard IGP is disabled if a discrete GPU is present, which they would be on the iMacs.)
 
You'd hope once the technology filters down to the Mac Pro that it would only apply to a few of the drive bays, not all of them or it won't be good news for all situations.

I've read somewhere, the avid/pro tools forums I think, that Hybrid drives are useless for audio work because they're constantly moving data too and from the physical disk to the SSD cache and it interferes with the constant stream of data required for multi-track recording and playback.

I can't see this new caching method being any different and that would mean having to go the external route using a firewire drive. I imagine if you had the combination of 2 SSDs in a RAID 0 config AND the SSD cache too that would make for one blazing fast boot up drive!
 
barmann said:
Move on, nothing to see here, no performance boost for heavy apps .
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Bzzt, sorry thanks for playing.

It's certainly not going to boost everything but there's no question that it has the potential to give a major boost for certain apps.

If you are accessing all data on a drive or at least accessing different data on a consistent basis, then sure, not much of a boost.

But if you tend to have a huge amount of data on disk but only access a smaller subset of it on a regular basis then yeah, you can get a major performance boost.

NorCalLights said:
Why do we need a new chipset to support SSD Caching? It seems like this could be done with software on the OS level... Windows can already do this, can't it?
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Exactly the question I had. I assume a hardware solution may be optimal but even a software solution should be able to provide a big improvement over current solutions (similar to hardware raid versus software raid). If nothing else, it seems like it should be doable with a PCI card and not require support from the motherboard.


fabianjj said:
That's true, but if TB is to replace USB, FireWire, displayport, ethernet and all of those things you would still need a few of them on a laptop, because if I plug in a tb mouse and then want to sync my iPod, I wouldn't Want to be forced to daisy chain those and then unplug them both just to do such a basic task?
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I don't think TB isn't intended to completely replace USB, just for high speed applications. Things like mice will likely remain USB for a long time.

ULFoaf said:
I would hope that full SSDs at lower prices soon make this obsolete
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That would be nice, but I don't know that SSDs will be as cheap as HD any time soon. If that point is years off, this will have plenty of time in which to be useful.

barkmonster said:
I've read somewhere, the avid/pro tools forums I think, that Hybrid drives are useless for audio work because they're constantly moving data too and from the physical disk to the SSD cache and it interferes with the constant stream of data required for multi-track recording and playback.
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Hybrid drives also have the limitation of being a fixed and relatively small size. SSD caching looks like it allows whatever size SSD you want, and in a setup like this it should be possible to keep the SSD out of the way of data that's not cached. You should also be able to have traditional HD that designated to not be cached. SSD caching is similar to a hybrid drive but it also has a number of differences.
 
This is not a new concept, my Seagate Momentus does the same thing... It caches commonly used files to the 4GB SSD attached drive...

IMO when Lion is released I am going to guess we might see an early Mac line update as with Leopard.
 
ten-oak-druid said:
So in the end you are paying more for less.
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It depends on if you care about performance or capacity. On my 13" Macbook I have plenty of capacity. I want additional performance. So paying a few hundred dollars for a 160GB SSD was a no-brainer. It's the best upgrade I've made to any computer in a long time.

If you need performance, then an SSD can easily be 'paying less for more.'.

And yes I know SSD has great speed benefits but most people can access their documents, music, photos and movies just fine with a hard drive.
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They can access them just fine with a floppy drive too. The 'great speed benefits' are the whole point.

If you think you need the speed just to boot faster or launch word faster, then make yourself boot up a ten year old computer running OS9 and don't leave the computer until its up and running.
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I'll do you one better. I have a Mac Plus at home purchased in 1986 that boots system 6.0.4 off of a floppy drive. It boots /much/ more quickly than my brand new 15" Macbook Pro.
 
robinheeftdorst said:
This summer I want to buy a Mac, its the 15" Core i7 2.2Ghz.
I want to buy it in July.

Please can someone tell me what to do, should I then buy it or wait for the revamp or the refresh? I don't know it anymore.

Its my first Mac and you are the experts.
Click to expand...

I think you're going to like your first mac! :)

You should buy the current version. The next refresh won't be out until about Christmas or later, probably. Of course, you can always follow these rumour sites if you want to keep up with the latest predictions! I'm probably going to wait for the next version, but that's because I haven't completely run my current machine (2006-era MacBook, 2GHz Core2Duo) into the ground yet.

Here's a good page that contains this sort of information:

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//

Product: MacBook Pro
Recommendation: Buy Now! - Product just updated
Last Release: February 24, 2011
Days Since Update: 5 (Avg = 215)
 
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robinheeftdorst said:
Hello,

This summer I want to buy a Mac, its the 15" Core i7 2.2Ghz.
I want to buy it in July.

Please can someone tell me what to do, should I then buy it or wait for the revamp or the refresh? I don't know it anymore.

Its my first Mac and you are the experts.
Click to expand...

So the chipset they are talking about here is only for desktops which will be refreshed in the summer. The previous poster to respond to you is right, the next refresh for the MacBook Pros is not likely to be until winter of this year at the earliest but more likely next year around this time. So if you're looking to a buy a new MacBook, you can buy anytime over the course of this year an you'll be getting pretty much the same product.

The MacBook Airs, regular MacBooks, iMac, etc ... will be refreshed over the course of this year. But if you buy a MacBook pro (the 15'' core i7 laptop you're talking about) in July, the next refresh of the Pro line probably won't be until January/February of 2012, December of this year at the earliest. Apple has been fairly consistent recently in it's yearly refresh cycles - especially of the pro line. So you shouldn't have buyer's remorse getting it in July. There are rumors that the 2012 MacBook pro refresh will be a major redesign, but those are unsubstantial rumors at this point. People usually keep their Macs for awhile after buying it, so buying it earlier or slightly later in the year will make little difference even if there is a redesign. I upgraded my MacBook pro this summer and don't regret it one bit. I plan on keeping it for another 4-5 years or longer refreshes and redesigns not withstanding. :) You can also get the laptop now and enjoy nearly a full year before the next refresh. :)

Enjoy your Mac when you get it!
 
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velocityg4 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

This has limited uses. Enthusiasts will be disappointed by the SSD size in hybrids and just use separate SSD and platter HD. For the average consumer the 64GB should be the standard and only drive in a computer.

Most people's total files do not take up more than a DVD. The vast majority of space is taken by apps and OS.
Click to expand...

Maybe on a desktop, with an external HDD attached this could be the case. But even then that'd be stretching it a bit. Definitely not for laptops. 64GB is pathetically small for a main drive now-a-days. I'm sorry, it just is.
 
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