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Data Storage Intel Hardware

Penny-Sized Flash Module Holds 16GB 146

Posted by Zonk from the okay-now-we're-in-the-future dept.
nerdyH writes "Intel describes its new 2GB to 16GB SSDs (solid state disks) as 'smaller than a penny, and weighing less than a drop of water.' The parts are '400 times smaller in volume than a 1.8-inch hard drive,' Intel boasts, 'and at 0.6 grams, 75 times lighter.' Sampling now, with mass production set for Q1 2008, the Z-P140 is described as an 'optional' part of Intel's Menlow chipset, built in turn as part of Intel's vision for Linux-based Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs)."
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Penny-Sized Flash Module Holds 16GB More

Penny-Sized Flash Module Holds 16GB

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  • Big deal (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BrianPan ( 786919 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:10AM (#21738742)
    All flash memory has been smaller than a penny and weigh less than a drop of water for a long time. Adding a package-on-package controller is an obvious next step. There's no big revolution happening here.

    • Re:Big deal (Score:5, Funny)

      by Eternauta3k ( 680157 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:14AM (#21738792) Homepage Journal

      All flash memory has been smaller than a penny and weigh less than a drop of water for a long time. Adding a package-on-package controller is an obvious next step. There's no big revolution happening here.
      What do you know about marketing?
      :P

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by BrianPan ( 786919 )
        Touche. I probably would have gone with "new flash still smaller than a quarter, still doesn't explode in your system."

        I guess Slashdot submissions also have to be "sold" to the editors to be front page worthy.
        • I guess Slashdot submissions also have to be "sold" to the editors to be front page worthy.

          I went on an interview once where the HR jerk spent most of the time berating me for not dressing up, said that during an interview, I was not a programmer, but a salesman, selling myself. He didn't say much at all about the job, except that all employees had to be at work between 8 and 830, not before, not after, and the company (Quantum business computers, I think was their name) was at the worst possible commute l

          • Re:Big deal (Score:5, Insightful)

            by russ1337 ( 938915 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @12:38PM (#21739898)
            we're way way off topic here, but to complement your story:

            A buddy of mine had a job interview for an office job - in the telecoms field, and had previously only ever worked as a precision machinist (CnC type stuff in coveralls) since he left school. He asked my advice on what to wear to the interview (and subsequent job) because I worked in a corporate environment. I helped him chose a suitable suit, tie etc, and gave him some simple dress tips (for the corporate environment - and wasnt entirely sure what his office culture was like, but thought better dress up than down.

            He was the only guy applying for the job that wore a tie - let alone a jacket. He got the job and wore his jacket and tie to work every day, (jacket off during working hours). In 6 weeks they made him the manager.

            I've always reckoned it was that he *looked* like the boss, and it 'looks bad' with him sitting in a cube with the polo-shirts and tee-shirts. The fact he wasn't a complete muppet helped too.

            Next time you think your boss is an idiot and wonder why he's your boss, you'll probably notice that the only difference between him and you, is that he dresses nicer.

            So that is why the article made it to the front page - it was wearing a tie. Articles wearing greasy coveralls and have food stains down the front have no chance.

            • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

              by danbert8 ( 1024253 )
              Well, since we're off topic, I have another similar situation... My first day on the job as a co-op, I wore a shirt and tie, and my boss told me not to wear a tie because I was making everyone look bad (I'm pretty sure he was joking). Some people like a more casual environment.
              • my boss told me the same 4 years ago. I did not stop wearing tie and suit. I have climbed two steps on the ladder since...

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by h4rm0ny ( 722443 )

              So do you regard those of us that don't wear ties as less capable, then?

              • So do you regard those of us that don't wear ties as less capable, then?

                Of course not.

                It is unfortunate that in this modern corporate world, where two candidates being equal in nearly all aspects, the one nicely dressed candidate tends to be considered better 'management material'. I don't always agree with it, it just seems to happen.

                You can either complain about it or use it to your advantage. We have a couple of guys here who would make great managers, they just happen to be complete slobs.

                • Re: (Score:3)

                  by h4rm0ny ( 722443 )

                  It is unfortunate that in this modern corporate world, where two candidates being equal in nearly all aspects, the one nicely dressed candidate tends to be considered better 'management material'.

                  In an interview, part of it is undoubtedly due to the perception that one has gone to greater effort. Allowing for those interviewers with where suit-obsession is particularly ingrained, I'd say the perception of greater effort is most of it. Going to greater effort is understandably an indicator of who really

                  • Agree completely. I suppose what I was really getting at, and it seems you agree - is that its about making the effort - not by being slobby, messy etc - but in the other direction. You did it with nice folders and handouts and a good presentation in a relaxed environment, whereas I went through 4 brand new white shirts over 3 days of interviewing with very formal presentations.

                    I currently don't wear a tie unless I'm meeting with contractors or senior management from head office - anything less in my j
                  • I didn't wear a suit and most definitely didn't wear a tie. I think it was a black t-shirt and black trousers, if I recall correctly.

                    Was this for a job at Apple, by any chance?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by slapout ( 93640 )
              "Articles wearing greasy coveralls and have food stains down the front have no chance"

              Articles about greasy food, however, do stand a chance.
    • I hope they don't waste it on their Turbo Memory [wikipedia.org] technology. That's something that looked good on paper, but really didn't work as expected. But I can't wait until we get solid state hard drives of a decent size. Maybe in a few years, we'll have 100GB flash hard drives, which will make laptops last longer on its battery...
      • Ummm cave dweller much? We've already got [newegg.com] 100 GB+ solid state drives. This one is obviously crazy expensive but you can get 32GB models for a more reasonable price - around $400 I think.
        • So I'm a cave-dweller for not knowing this? So I guess 99% of the population are of the cave-dweller variety. Congrats on being the 1% of the people who are surface-dwellers.
          • 99% of the population isn't on slashdot. My mom doesn't even know what a hard drive is, but then, she isn't the kind of person using this site either. If you're here - it's because you're a geek / nerd / techie / whatever. You are, therefore, expected to know a little about what's happening in tech.
            • Well, I guess it's expected on slashdot to get insulted for not knowing something. At least I learned something new. That's why I read the comments.
            • being on slashdot and having nothing better to do except for keeping up with 'whats new in tech' is an excellent way of saying you don't have much of a life :)

              oh, and by chance I did know about these other flash drives but I don't think that gives me moral superiority over anybody. Except you perhaps because of that...

              Maybe next time you could try to just pass the information and leave the attitude ?

      • I hope they don't waste it on their Turbo Memory technology. That's something that looked good on paper, but really didn't work as expected. But I can't wait until we get solid state hard drives of a decent size. Maybe in a few years, we'll have 100GB flash hard drives, which will make laptops last longer on its battery...

        My everyday work laptop only has a 32Gb disk, it seems to be enough for corporate purposes. I would not use it to develop code unless I was in an airplane and really bored and I can't st

      • I think the vast majority of users have less than 80GB of data that they store. Even as an OS-only drive on a laptop, this SSD in the range of 8-16GB is pretty attractive. At the very least, using a SSD for the OS and maybe a few apps as well, would cut down on the hard drive usage, enabling the laptop to power down the hard disk for longer periods of time while the system is not using it.
        Furthermore, I don't consider Turbo Memory to be a flop at all. Depending on your usage it can be a SSD itself with a

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by noidentity ( 188756 )
      And the smallest sticks are too damn small already. A friend got one of those Micro SD or something and I was surprised he hadn't already lost it in the carpet. Maybe good for having a normal-sized watch with GB of memory, but otherwise too easy to lose.

  • Ultramobile devices (Score:3, Interesting)

    by morgan_greywolf ( 835522 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:14AM (#21738788) Homepage Journal
    I could see ultramobile devices using these. Not only are they small, but they consume only about 300 mW of power active, and 1.1 mW in sleep mode.

    We're starting to get to a point where wearable computers will be practical. You'll be able to sew a whole computer right into a jacket or a sweater. Throw in one of those wearable displays [myvu.com], abd forget lugging around that heavy laptop!
    • Isn't energy source the bottle neck? Why don't they advertising mainly the power consumption?

      Anyway, the data by the time we can have a powerful computer hidden inside a jacket, the data will be stored at home and accessed through wireless communications, so the only really useful advance in memory is power consumption.
      • One idea that's been floated around, seen it on Slashdot too, is that people would supply the energy. It would be something like motion capture, heat capture or directly tapping into our bodies (a la the Borg).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by wattrlz ( 1162603 )
      You can also forget about ever boarding a commercial airline.
    • Quarter VGA isn't a whole lot of screen space (320x240 pixels).

      Unfortunately, higher res wearable displays cost much more, and most are only really sold to the military, for whatever reason.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Belial6 ( 794905 )
      We are not even close to having wearable computers sewn into jackets or sweaters. There are HUGE advances that need to be made that have nothing to do with size or power consumption before sewn in computers are feasible. The first is security. I know I have lost a jacket or two by leaving it in a restaurant when I left. How about when you go to an event that has coat checks. Having your data available to anyone with access to the coat closet isn't going to cut it.

      Then there is cost. Many people hav

  • That's nothing (Score:4, Funny)

    by techpawn ( 969834 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:15AM (#21738796) Journal
    I lost a few gig of SD memory in a keyboard one time by accident. So, we're actually moving backwards in size.

    • I lost a few gig of SD memory in a keyboard one time by accident. So, we're actually moving backwards in size.


      I've heard that story before, except then, the SD memory was a flute, and the keyboard was... well... at band camp.
    • I lost a few gig of SD memory in a keyboard one time by accident. So, we're actually moving backwards in size.

      Even easier with Micro-SD.

  • And next year... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by yuri82 ( 236251 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:16AM (#21738824) Homepage Journal
    And in 2009 they will have it with 64GB, and the year after 256GB...

    They probably have the technology for 256GB now, but why waste it all on one release?

    • And in 2009 they will have it with 64GB, and the year after 256GB...

      That's just silly. Moore's law clearly states that capacity doubles every 18 months. So in Summer 2009 they will have 32GB and in spring 2011 they will have 64GB. They won't have 256GB until spring of 2014...

  • But isn't this yesterday's news? Or did I read it on yahoo over breakfast. I long for the days when slashdot was for news I didn't see on Yahoo first. But this is still cool technology. And means I should keep putting off buying a new iPod.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by garcia ( 6573 )
      But isn't this yesterday's news? Or did I read it on yahoo over breakfast. I long for the days when slashdot was for news I didn't see on Yahoo first. But this is still cool technology. And means I should keep putting off buying a new iPod.

      I long for the days when Yahoo posted something and there was a community of people that responded to the content of the blurb (not the article of course!) and you got responses in the range of trolls all the way through insightful discussion, commentary and links to othe

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jackpot777 ( 1159971 )

      ...I should keep putting off buying a new iPod.

      Ah, we've all been there with technology. When I got my 2nd gen. iPod nano, I thought "wow, colour screen" and now I'm thinking "hmmm, no video."

      Time to meander like the old man I am: I found a 3.5" floppy at home last week where I had written on the label: 'put onto new computer, maybe 1.4GHz'. Oooh, with 256 megs of RAM and a nice big 40 Gig hard drive... I just checked eBay, there's a HP WorkStation X2000 P4 going in the US for two hundred dollars with 512MB

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by stuboogie ( 900470 )
        "Or I can wait twenty years and they'll have a nanobot one for free in my Corkflakes (sans SCSI)."

        Corkflakes??

        Is there going to be a corn shortage in the future due to global warming or will we find out that cork is not only high in fiber, but is great for your cholesterol!!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sparr0 ( 451780 )

        When I got my 2nd gen. iPod nano, I thought "wow, colour screen" and now I'm thinking "hmmm, no video."
        That's just Apple screwing customers over when it comes to new software. There's no reason you can't play video on your nano. Get rid of Apple's crappy iPod OS, join all the happy RockBox [rockbox.org] users.
        • I checked out the link ...they don't have anything for the 2nd Gen iPod Nano yet (and I'm not risking the 1st Gen option in case it bricks the iPod). Their instruction manual didn't mention anything about 2nd Gen Nanos at all.
    • I long for the days when people come to /. for commenting and reading comments, instead of news. 8-)

      • I long for the days when people come to /. for commenting and reading comments, instead of news. 8-)
        Since when did slashdot start offering news?
      • That's pretty much the only reason I come to Slashdot.

        I can get news anywhere. There isn't another community around that I enjoy reading the comments on the latest news story.

  • Er, so what? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Speare ( 84249 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:21AM (#21738894) Homepage Journal

    Okay, so they made a chip that would fit in a microSDHC form factor. Is it faster? Is it lower-power? Is the interface more convenient? Is the chipset to host it already commonplace? Why would I want yet-another-memory-stick-format product in the already-crowded marketplace?

    • Re:Er, so what? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by tangent3 ( 449222 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:34AM (#21739072)
      and most importantly, how much does it cost per GB, compared to Flash?
      • What do you mean, *compared* to flash? This *is* flash. Maybe you mean compared to Secure Digital, or USB pen drives? Which one?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by MBCook ( 132727 )
      Read the story. This isn't to replace SD cards. This is a little chip to be built onto the motherboard of cell phones or iPods to hold the data, and for that it is much smaller than other offerings.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Speare ( 84249 )
        Okay, so they don't want to encase it in a piece of plastic with a big slider-pad for contacts. I'm sure SanDisk would be okay with direct integration of their storage chips onto motherboards too. I stand by my comment: this appears no different from existing capacities already available on the market. Why the huge press event?

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by ivan256 ( 17499 )
          microSD caps out at 8GB right now, and even those aren't readily available...

          Doubling capacity isn't press-release worthy anymore?
          • And they only work in microSD slots that support SDHC [wikipedia.org]

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by ivan256 ( 17499 )
              SDHC is a software enhancement. The branding is required simply because many devices can't have their software modified after sale. Electrically, the devices are the same.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Alioth ( 221270 )
        Open up an SD card, USB drive, Compact Flash card or whatever and inside... you'll find a chip packaged much in this way. The dimensions they describe are of a common-or-garden BGA (ball grid array) package, which has been used in electronics for _years_.

    • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by Pharmboy ( 216950 )
      Read the article instead of trying to post first and karma whore. Most of your questions are answered there and it is only a few paragraphs.

  • It's three times bigger than microSD (Score:5, Insightful)

    by adam1101 ( 805240 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:28AM (#21738994)
    The dimensions of this module are 18x12x1.8mm, which is more than three times the volume of microSD (15x11x0.7mm, which includes a plastic housing). Now some of the other features are nice (IDE controller, high speeds), but the size isn't anything amazing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MBCook ( 132727 )

      Yep. Now just tell me where I can get a 16 GB microSD card and I'll accept you as right. By the way, don't you think this device includes a housing too?

      Even though the devices aren't even competing with each other. It's a tiny size for it's market segment and capacity.

    • Yes, MicroSD is still smaller. That said, Wikipedia (I guess you consulted Wikipedia) is incorrect in its leading summary. The card is not 0.7mm thick, it is about 1mm thick (0.95mm according to my vernier scale). Funnily enough, the table in the bottom of the Wikipedia article lists 1.0mm as well. The 0.7mm seems to come from the connector part.

      So to adjust for your calculations...
      MicroSD = 15*11*1.0 = 165
      Intel's thingy = 18*12*1.8 = 388.8

      388.8 / 165 ~= 2.36

      Anyway, the more important bit is that it doe

  • Not 400 times smaller (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:36AM (#21739090)
    400 times smaller in volume than a 1.8-inch hard drive

    Why do people say things like this?
    Its size is 1/400 of a 1.8-inch hard drive, not 400*(the smallness of a 1.8-inch hard drive).

    • 400 times smaller in volume than a 1.8-inch hard drive


      Why do people say things like this?
      Its size is 1/400 of a 1.8-inch hard drive, not 400*(the smallness of a 1.8-inch hard drive).


      It's called capitalist marketing. Welcome to the show. Popcorn? ;)

      • It's called capitalist marketing. Welcome to the show. Popcorn? ;)
        Popcorn is only included in the Deluxe package. Would you like to upgrade now or continue with the Standard package? Don't worry, we'll keep asking until you upgrade.

        Yeah PayPal, I'm looking at you.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dfeist ( 615612 )
        Well, in fact, if you define smallness=1/size, there is no problem.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jhines ( 82154 )
      Remember how well the bimbo's that now read news did in math class?
    • "Why do people say things like this?"

      It rolls off the tongue more easily. Funny thing about the net, a lot of the text that's posted on it was originally derived by how people speak to each other. It can really wreak havoc on a brain that's too hard-wired. I remember nearly putting our finance guy into a coma by walking into the building with my baseball hat on backwards.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )
      Ok, let us start by taking out "in volume", which is clearly there to avoid confusion with capacity, diameter (1/400th of 1.8"??) and whatever. "400 times smaller than a 1.8-inch hard drive", or "X times smaller than Y". Well, I do understand "X times larger than Y", does that mean 400*(the largeness of Y) then? Personally I'd say I just interpret that as 400*size, largeness is to me the same sort of subjective attribute as smallness.

      To me it sounds perfectly reasonable that if X is 400 times larger than Y,

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sparr0 ( 451780 )

        If I gave you a 1kg and 10kg weight, would you say they were ten times heavier/lighter? I would.

        And you would be wrong TWICE. First, for the reason under discussion above (which is to say, I disagree with you). Second, and a personal pet peeve of mine, because 10kg is NINE times heavier than 1kg. 2kg is "one time(s)" (1*1kg) heavier than 1kg. 10kg is ten times *AS HEAVY* as 1kg, but not ten times *HEAVIER*, the "er" implying that youre starting at the weight of the lighter thing, not at zero.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Paul_Hindt ( 1129979 )
      Why don't they instead just say 0.0045 inches?

  • Memory low... (Score:3, Funny)

    by nonos ( 158469 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @11:40AM (#21739144)
    .. please insert coin !
  • of interface and controller?

    Seems like they might be significant...
    • Why should interface and controller costs be significant? It's certainly going to be less than for a regular drive since you won't have to deal with anything electromechanical. And if you compare with something similar as USB thumb drives they've come down so much in price that you can find them for a song in supermarkets these days... and they all have controller and interface electronics in them.

  • Breakfast Cereal (Score:5, Funny)

    by Easy2RememberNick ( 179395 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @12:03PM (#21739398)
    It would make a great breakfast cereal if you had a whole bunch of them in a bowl covered in milk, and yes, of course, it would be called GigaBites.
  • My current laptop with XP and Office is using about 13Gb of disk. No movie files, etc. So this could be my C: drive right now and I could use regular flash for data storage. Add a more efficient display (LED lit or eventually organic polymer) and new generation of efficient processor and you have a great portable system that would serve the needs of most folks.
    • I used a Fujitsu Siemens ultraportable for ages and that had a 20GB drive and a 1Ghz processor with XP. So yeah, 16GB is fine in an ultraportable.
    • Actually I am waiting for something even better.

      the core OS stored on one of these things. The boot loader loads the OS drive read only. The OS loads and runs. Swap, applications, etc are then stored on the regular HD.

      Benefits boot times are quicker, but more importantly viruses can't modify the core OS. At least beyond a reboot. Think of it as a live CD for any computer. Security for even MSFT's software would be high.

      Though knowing MSFt they would allow the drive to be switched to R/W by windows upd
  • So how many drops of water is the Library of Congress?
  • I read the title as Penis Sized Flash Module, and thought intel was trying a different approach to get a bigger share of the ladies market...
    • Wow...

      Penis-Sized... and Tastecicles... what proximity... but, to get to the minor point...

      I was half expecting references to "A penis for your kiss, an nuzzle for your thoughts, a hind if you tell me that you love me..."

      (IRT: A penny for your thoughts, a nickel for a kiss.. a diiiime if you tell me that you love me..."

      Hehehe
  • "400 times smaller in volume than a 1.8-inch hard drive" ...As compared to what?

    "and at 0.6 grams, 75 times lighter." ...As compared to what?

    Are we talking 1/400 the volume of an average 1.8" HDD (at 9mm thick that'd make the 1.8" drive with a volume of 18812.86cu.mm, giving a volume for the flash of 47.03cu.mm) and 1/75 the mass? (come to think of it, I don't think I've come across a 1.8" HDD that masses in at 45 grammes... that'd be pretty damn heavy for a hard drive that size. Also would make for one ver

  • Incorrect unit for size used please correct it. (Score:5, Funny)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @12:36PM (#21739862) Journal
    I find that the summary uses "penny size" to describe the size of the chip. Slashdot Standard Units Manual, clearly states that the preferred units for length is football fields, (as in my bookshelf is 0.01 football fields wide).

    Similarly preferred units data size is libraries of congress (as in sigfile in /. should be less than 80 femto libraries of congress)

    For weight it is locomotives. As in "The sun weighs 3.72 tera locomotives)

    And for flow rate it is Amazon river. The new regulations reduced the maximum flow rate for shower heads from 1.6 atto amazons to 1.2 atto amazons.

    For volume the preferred units is number of Earths that could be stuffed into it. As in "The asteroid Gzibpat has the volume of 0.1 micro Earths.

    So please recalculate the volume of the chip in Earths and resubmit the story.

    • No, the unit for volume is the VW Bug, unless it is REALLY big, and then it is Earths.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cmacb ( 547347 )
      NOW I feel bad for not doing more meta-modding. Unless whoever modded this "informative" were themselves trying to be funny, /. seems to be losing its sense of humor.

      Well, it's a good post anyway, regardless what you call it I guess.
      • Funny does not give karma. Informative does. People mod things infomative/insightful/interesting to give the poster karma that they otherwise miss out on by being funny.

  • Truth in advertising (Score:4, Informative)

    by somepunk ( 720296 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @12:38PM (#21739894) Homepage
    When I saw them comparing pennies for volume and water for weight, I knew there was some funny business afoot. A drop of water weight a damn lot less than a penny, so (even allowing a lot of room for variation in density) this flash thingie is likely a lot smaller than a penny, or a lot heavier than a drop of water, or they would have chosen some smaller familiar item to compare it with. That, combined with the fact that a "drop of water" is not exactly a well defined quantity, and it screams out for a fact check.

    A quick google brought up a freshman chemistry lab report [asu.edu], in microsoft word format, even. Not exactly the paragon of authority, but it is well known that freshman chemistry students have a far greater respect for the truth then marketers.

    Their value for the mass of a drop of water is .025 grams, which is twenty-four times less than the .6 grams that the mass of the flash memory. I thought so.

    It isn't hard to imagine a .6 gram drop of water, actually, just to be fair to those dorks, but I don't think it would resemble the familiar ones that most of us are accumstomed to.

  • weighing less than a drop of water
    In lower gravity everything weighs less, including water. But a drop should be able to grow bigger before it breaks from a dripping tap/faucet and falls. Maybe these two effects cancel out, making the "drop of water" a useful standard weight for everywhere in the solar system.

    Or maybe Intel's PR team are full of Christmas spirit and have bet each other to use randomly-chosen phrases.
  • There are a lot of great new technologies reaching production soon... computing form factors are ready for a big change. I would love to see a range of products based on Sony's 13inch OELD, Intel's silverthrone and small flash SSDs.
  • Making it even easier to lose large amounts of personal records!!

    Actually, I'd love to see these serve as "wetware" direct-to-brain memory enhancements. My brain seems to have been leaking memory capacity ever since I've been a parent (currently 3yo and a bundle of energy).

  • Intel produced a "mobile internet device", MID, earlier in the year... and it of course came with a 1.8 inch hard-drive with Mobile Windows. ( http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS2312330067.html [windowsfordevices.com]

    The problems with this was that you have to boot windows from a hard-drive, put it in suspend, watch your battery life dissipate, then scrap it for uselessness.

    So Intel adds a smaller SSD memory for Linux and provides "instant on" features.

    While this is not revolutionary, it does indicate where things are

  • I started looking into Intel's Menlow Platform, and it appears that a company called Elektrobit is developing the first device which uses it.

    http://www.elektrobit.com/index.php?599 [elektrobit.com]

    They are calling their product the "EB Mobile Internet Multimedia Device, MIMD" which is a boring an unexciting name, but it looks like it will be available by next year. I like the larger sized keyboard it includes.

  • 6GB for $100, a lot smaller than a penny:

    http://www.sandisk.com/Products/ProductInfo.aspx?ID=2447 [sandisk.com]

    The article refers to 40mb/sec, which is faster than the 5 to 10mb/sec the linked product will do. Other than speed, is there any advantage to the Intel offering?
  • Currently all the flash interfaces are the default interfaces for hard drives: PATA, SATA and even USB. Now one of the advantages of flash is the extremely low latency (seek times) compared with hard drives. Now I know that flash memory will still lag significantly compared with DRAM, but a question springs to mind: should PATA/SATA really be the interface for flash drives? Won't these interfaces slow down seek times?

    You would probably use this memory module in products as logical replacement as a hard driv

  • Math (Score:2)

    by slapout ( 93640 )
    So if they put a bunch of these into a the space of a 1.8" hard drive, you'd end up with a 800GB solid state hard drive. Course, it would probably cost more than it's weight in gold.
    • Gold is pretty cheap, even at current prices of $800/oz -- a gram of the stuff is only $30. You probably want to compare to a metal that is actually precious, like (say) rhodium at $240/gram.

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