Samsung debuts hybrid HDDs

Samsung Electronics has begun shipping hybrid hard disk drives.

These drives are a combination of conventional magnetic storage and flash memory.

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Flash memory is much faster than conventional magnetic disks. The onboard Flash memory will act as an integrated cache for the main magnetic memory.

This integration means that the disks will be used less frequently and requires less power. Samsung also claims that this new technology cuts the power consumption from 70% - 90%.

Windows Vista users will benefit most from this technology as the operating system has a new ReadyDrive feature.

Since Flash memory is easier to access, ReadyDrive should also enable the systems to wake up quickly from sleep mode.

Samsung is shipping these new drives in three versions - 80GB, 120GB and 160GB. These drives are embedded with 128MB or 256MB of flash memory.

The only problem with this is that since Windows Vista is the only operating system that supports ReadyDrive, other users will not be able to benefit from this feature.

Intel is also developing a similar system code named Robson. This system has a flash memory on the PC motherboard and will be included in Intel's new Santa Rosa laptop platform which the company will ship in the second quarter of next year.

Via: pcworld