832 GB flash drive will be on the market by 2008
The hardware maker, Bit Micro, has recently announced that they are finishing on a 832 GB flash, solid state hard drive. This along with other flash drive will improve a users experience.
The E-Disk Altime 2.5″ drive will be a serial ATA drive with flash solid state technology. The company will start to test the drive in the summer and expects the new part to ship by the end of 2008. As of the time of the announcement the price was not disclosed.
What good will it do me? Go question you ask. With the promise of large (more than 20 GB) flash hard drives a consumer will see:
Their PC cases shrink: Because of the size of the traditional hard drive and room for proper cooling PC cases are bigger.
Their laptops get thinner and battery life improve: Since these flash drive are thinner, laptops will be thinner as well. Also considering how much energy it takes to keep the platters spinning in a traditional hard drive battery life will improve. A flash drive is solid state, with no moving parts for less battery consumption.
Less hard drive failures: Many times a hard drive crashes due to a physical problem with the drive. Traditional hard drives have a reader (head) that picks up the data on a platter on the drive. Both the head and platters are sensitive to their environment (hence lots of cooling) and how they get handled. Improper cooling and/or handling can cause physical damage to the drive. Flash’s solid state technology has no moving parts to break, but do need to get cooled, albeit less.