1.6 TB Solid-State Disk - More reliable than HDD ?

Not surprising. My first computer used whirling strings of magnetic beads - it was replaced by silicon as well. Kind of a shame really - I like things with moving parts.

The problem with moving parts is friction - resulting in requirements for heat dissipation, vibration and noise - resulting in requirements for damping solutions, and thirst for excessive energy - resulting in short operating-cycles or requirements for bigger and heavier batteries on mobile devices - none of which is good news, or environment-friendly.

Solid State Flash devices are super-fast, silent, shock and vibration proof, EMP and x-ray proof (their data remains intact following security scans and electronic probing at airports) - in fact they are prime choice for military application.

Magnetic-beads technology was indeed a distant relative of the later-called "Bubble Memory" from the eighties, by itself the ancestral venue leading to today's SSDs.

So, this Solid-State EEPROM technology has in fact come full-circle from magnetic beads to bubble to flash to SSD, although each of these were a slightly different physical application of "permanent data retention cell" arranged in random-access configuration on a matrix or an array.

In this case, the old and the new are not that much apart.

Ever hear of Core Memory? Each element consisted of a ferrite doughnut, with 3 wires looped thru the center.(READ-WRITE-REWRITE.)These were hand made, and I have seen some VERY small ones.We once ran a complete manufacturing plant on 64K of core, with a drum unit as a magnetic drive.512 dedicated read/write heads, one per track, ran 3600 RPM, weighed about 500 lbs, and cost around $60000.Very fast random access for it's time.Used a Sperry Univac mini computer.(still took up a whole room for the I/O, printer,monitors,CARD READER, 8"Floppy(single sided) and air conditioning,backup generator, etc.

Things have come a long ways since the 1970's, when you could enter a computer room and sometimes determine the problem by sound only.

We carry around more processing power in a pocket calculator than way back then.

The only thing lost was the ability to write tight, compact code that conserved system resources.

If you have 40 acres to turn a truck around, you don't need to be very skilled as a truck driver.

Then again, where is the need for conservation when memory and storage is so cheap?

The old timers have probably turned to hacking now to escape boredom.

Storage and memory in the GIGA\Tera Byte range? Get ready for ExaByte soon.

wow that is old.... the technology I mean.

A Sperry Univac mini computer? Oh, please. Try a Control Data Corp CDC-1604, circa 1963. That's the baby I cut my Fortran teeth on. Someone gave one to the EE dept at my college in the 70's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_1604

On the same vain of SSD, is there any truth to this article, in which it essentially states that SSD could replace RAM in the future?

Article: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218459/Could_NAND_flash_kill_DRAM_in_PCs_

It doesn't have to.

SSD is essentially a modern form of the old EEPROM, so it could "play" as RAM if you wanted it to - only it would be a waste of hardware, because - unlike RAM - it is capable of retaining it's data intact, once the power supply is off

I'm trying to see what your point is. SSD technology is superior or else it wouldn't be taking off like it is. As it gains traction, it will increasingly cost less to the consumer.

I could do with a fairly small SSD; about 100GB would do just fine. Actually, it would only have to have enough capacity for my system and program files - any large media files could be kept on a HDD.

Getting close to getting one, muaahaahaa!

We have been developing solid-state hardware using 1.8" SSD drives for the past year and found there are many pros and cons when compared to their mechanical cousins.

Pros: Very fast write and read times we are streaming data at over 200mb/sec, more reliable due to no moving parts, can operate at higher operating temps, can operate in high vibration environments

Cons: They are 7-8 times more expensive than the mechanical drives, use NAND Flash technology that has finite write cycles so they do wear out, generate a lot of heat by consuming up to 6W of power for a 1/2 TB

SSD have come a long way but still have hurdles to overcome before they will completely replace the mechanical drive with the biggest being pricing. A SSD 1/2TB drive is about $750 and a 1 TB mechanical drive is under $100. Both devices use the SATA interface and new specifications are coming out soon that will allow up to 10GB transfer speeds in the future.

The biggest problem with the mechanical drives is they seem to fail frequently. This is mostly due to running at elevated temps or having a head crash due to vibration. So it all depends upon what your needs are as to what technology is best the best fit. So if you are constantly rewriting data you could wear out a SSD within a few years but that is not to say the mechanical drive does not fail within that same time period. At least when the SSD starts to wear out your data will still be safe rather than getting a catastrophic failure when the mechanical drive fails. In the testing we have done, I have not had a SSD fail yet but that is not to say it could not happen tomorrow.

"...we are streaming data at over 200mb/sec..." - the model stated above is capable of 1000mb/sec

The longest term data retention (and integrity) flash device is currently made by Sandisk, and called "WORM". WORM is a type of PROM (write-once Programmable ROM) guaranteed for data-integrity of tens of years to come.

Is is relatively expensive and small (1 giga at the moment), but as ordinary random-access flash got to cost about a few cents per giga, to volumes of beyond Terra, it is reasonable to assume WORM will eventually get there in a couple of years.

Great for music and cinema libraries.

Not really what was intended for the "flash" moniker. This is write once read many. More like a CD. One time (writing) use only.

But yes, great for movies, music and pix.

My first computer used sliding pieces of plastic to store the 4 bit numbers it would add.

I'm going to give it another year for the price to come down.