Sony will be releasing a new version of their ultra-portable Vaio U series laptop next week. In place of the standard 30GB hard drive, it will feature 16GB of solid-state storage. There had been rumors in weeks past that Apple had been making deals with flash memory manufacturers for a possible 12 inch flash-based laptop. It seems like Sony has beaten Apple to the punch. There are many reasons for the move to a flash-based system. Aside from high prices and the decrease in storage capacity, using flash as the primary storage medium allows for much faster read and write speeds in addition to low power usage, optimal for ultra-portable notebooks. The Vaio UX90 just launched in Japan today and the US will get its first glimpse soon after, in July.
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That could mean those processors would run a little cooler, perhaps? That would be the biggest advantage to portables, in my opinion. I’m looking to buy a MacBook or MacBook Pro, but I do like to type two-handed and that bottom-left corner gets pretty toasty.
But are there disadvantages to the flash memory? Easier to corrupt and more difficult to recover? I don’t know. I haven’t researched it. But that is a concern, of course. Is it dependable as a “permanent” storage media.
hmm too bad this technology is still kind of far away… I’m considering buying a MacBookPro at the end of the summer and I would have loved for it to have Flash memory instead of a hdd.
The problem will always come down to cost. Flash based on GB v GB will remain far more expensive than traditional HDD for some time. If you’ve got the dosh it might be fun to have – especially for extra low power devices.
What sorts of speed improvements would this offer?
Flash drives sound like a dream to have: low power, lighter, runs quiet, but the big disadvantage for me is finite erase/write cycles. If they can have it swapped out easily, I’d say we have a winnah!
and you announce it now!
I just got a 12 in compaq presario….and I find power consupmtion the only backdraw in it….why couldnt u drop the line earlier…..
:)