The scene is constantly repeated. “My hard drive died and I lost everything.” More than one writer has had to undergo psychological therapy to accept that the five chapters of his new novel have disappeared. The death of a hard drive can take away movies, discographies, photos, doctoral theses and a long (and painful) etcetera.
The hard drive market is tough, of course. Every day new devices are offered with capacities that are almost impossible to fill and in tiny sizes. But when the hard drive industry managed to make humanity aware that it is necessary to have a good one, the best, and to have more than one to ensure that the information is not in danger, just then flash memory appeared. Who doesn't have a USB memory in the shape of a key, pencil, skewer? They are the little geniuses of the SSD (Solid State Drive) family.
The SSD is a solid memory device, which first of all does not make the noise of an airplane taking off when it is working - since they use flash memory chips to store data instead of magnetic platters - it is much lighter, reduces the search times and latency (less than 0,01 milliseconds) and does not include moving parts, making it immune to external vibrations (i.e., it withstands drops of up to eight feet and shocks). Furthermore, since they are non-volatile memories, the stored information is not lost when the power is disconnected. However, there is a big but that has prevented the popularization of these devices, about 400 euros per GB, much more expensive than the famous hard drives.
A few months ago, American engineer Michael Nygard, an expert in systems with governments, banks and companies among his clients, reported on his blog (www.michaelnygard.com) that he missed a flight because airport security officials detained him, unable to to understand why a computer could be so light and thin. Nygard traveled for the first time with the MacBook Air, a computer with 64 GB of SSD memory. This is one of the latest inventions from Apple, which has also incorporated these memories into the desired iPhones.
SSD devices are not distributed separately yet in Spain. According to computer engineer Sacha Fuentes, only some ultraportables, such as the Lenovo X300 or the MacBook Air, offer them already integrated with capacities that do not exceed 64 GB. Toshiba also includes them in its Portegé family and Dell offers from 32 to 128 GB in the Latitude and Precision. All with prices much higher than those of a common computer - between 1.500 and 3.000 euros. Only the Asus Eeee family offers inexpensive laptops with SSD memory at prices between 300 and 400 euros.
The capacity of SSD devices started with 32 and 64 gigabytes — and those who are not familiar with this term probably have one in their MP3 or mobile phone — up to the 128 GB that Samsung sells. Imation recently launched the PRO 7000 in Spain, with 64 and 128 GB models, which can reach a maximum reading speed of 120 MB per second and a maximum recording speed of 90 MB per second. But business is getting better. In September, Samsung itself, which has immersed itself in the development of this technology, will distribute 256 GB prototypes, which are expected to hit the market at the end of the year. The firm expects sales of these devices to increase by 800% by 2010.
Samsung's recent announcement draws attention because it talks about 200 MB per second for reading and 160 MB per second for writing. A speed about 2,4 times faster than that of a conventional hard drive. The development of multilevel cells for data storage also promises to reduce the prices of this type of device. On the other hand, Texas Memory System already sells an SSD with 512 GB of memory, of course at prohibitive prices that distance it from the general public and reduce its implementation to large companies.
And while others invest in the development of the SSD, the Japanese Fujitsu is taking lead feet. Recently, his vice president, Joel Hagberg, stated that the advantages of SSDs have been exaggerated and that there are about two years left before the business is attractive for his company.
The truth is that while large storage device manufacturers are considering the development of SSDs on a large scale, the threatened hard drive continues to reign. Its sales have grown 21% this quarter compared to last year, according to
iSuppli. In total 137 million hard drives were sold.
For now, the cards are cast. We can only hope that the technology monsters manage to make it available to people. They have already done it with cell phones, computers and all kinds of gadgets. Meanwhile the hard drive continues its slow and prosperous agony.