[pixelninja]

That long-dreamed-of product, the solid-state laptop, is one step closer to reality, as Samsung is showing off a flash-powered laptop at CeBIT. The demo box uses a 32GB 1.8-inch solid-state drive created by Samsung, to show off the company's flash chops. Unfortunately, at $30 per gigabyte, the 32GB drive would cost over $900.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/10/samsung-shows-off-flash-laptop-drive-at-cebit/

 

[binary visions]

Theoretically cool, but the current write cycle limitations on flash drives render it a silly investment. For inexpensive, smaller cards and uses like cameras and portable devices, the write cycle limits don't get hit very quickly. On a laptop.... well, the Windows swap file by itself would probably wear the thing out.

Mainstream solid-state drives are coming... but not soon.

 

[pixelninja]

Theoretically cool, but the current write cycle limitations on flash drives render it a silly investment. For inexpensive, smaller cards and uses like cameras and portable devices, the write cycle limits don't get hit very quickly. On a laptop.... well, the Windows swap file by itself would probably wear the thing out.

Mainstream solid-state drives are coming... but not soon.

Could you explain the write cycle limitations?

 

[binary visions]

Could you explain the write cycle limitations?

A sector of flash memory can only be written to and erased a certain number of times before it will no longer accept a write.

Some nice firmware will actually keep a map of how many times each sector has been written and erased and will spread the write/re-writes out over the entire drive (so some sectors don't get more activity than others). That's a good solution, but swap file activity is pretty intense, not to mention things like temp files that are constantly getting written and deleted.

 

[pixelninja]

A sector of flash memory can only be written to and erased a certain number of times before it will no longer accept a write.

any idea on what the max number is?

 

[Westy]

It would be nice to have a hybrid system. Have the OS and other "long Term" system files loaded onto flash. Use a HDD for areas that need a lot of write counts.

 

[binary visions]

any idea on what the max number is?

For decent consumer flash, it's generally estimated that they'll take a million read/writes before quitting. That's pretty variable, of course.

A hybrid system would be fine, but part of goal is reducing the fragility of laptops, as well as reducing power consumption. A hybrid system would still consume a lot of power (since you have the platter drive), and you still have the risk of drive failure.