Flash as the next boot volume?

[brxndxn]

I was reading an article on Slashdot about Hitachi's upcoming 500GB hard drive. A lot of people were trying to complain that newer drives aren't getting any faster (despite shear density of data making them faster).. but anyway..

A guy mentioned that compactflash, while only 2mb/s (the one he had), would boot insanely fast because access times are much shorter on flash than on magnetic media. I'm thinking there might be a market for a flash drive as the boot volume on a computer - or maybe a cache disk. Ya, it's expensive now - 4gb flash is about $400.. but it will go down drastically.

So, I'm thinking flash will somehow find itself in the computer in the near future.. Anyone think so?

You can already buy a compactflash to IDE adapter..

 

[Malak]

Wait, how is this off-topic?

 

[nageov3t]

for the enthusiast, maybe, but I can't see it ever going mainstream. joe consumer uses his C: drive for everything and the kitchen sink, so having a 4GB C: drive on a desktop isn't really an option for any computer produced after 1997.

 

[amol]

yeah i think so too

in fact, pretty soon, we'll be buying 10packs of 64GB flash cards and putting them into little slots on our motherboard . . .

 

[jagec]

The problem is that flash memory can only be re-written ~1000x or so. Which would be bad for a drive.

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: loki8481
for the enthusiast, maybe, but I can't see it ever going mainstream. joe consumer uses his C: drive for everything and the kitchen sink, so having a 4GB C: drive on a desktop isn't really an option for any computer produced after 1997.

youre forgetting that capacities are increasing . . .

 

[WhiteWonder]

You could have one for the OS and programs that you use alot, and have a HD for basic storage (pictures, movies).

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: loki8481
for the enthusiast, maybe, but I can't see it ever going mainstream. joe consumer uses his C: drive for everything and the kitchen sink, so having a 4GB C: drive on a desktop isn't really an option for any computer produced after 1997.

youre forgetting that capacities are increasing . . .

how soon do you think we're going to see an affordable +100GB flash card, though?

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: jagec
The problem is that flash memory can only be re-written ~1000x or so. Which would be bad for a drive.

Yup, that is the real limitation of flash as a drive. It's OK for stuff that doesn't change much (just boot up & run from memory type apps), but for heavy I/O it's not good.

Solid state is the ideal solution, but flash isn't it. RAM based devices leave flash in the dust, and aren't subject to the limitations of flash.

Viper GTS