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Robson or hybrid hard drive? The battle is coming
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Intel is backing a technology called Robson. In Robson, a large amount of data and applications will be stored in flash memory so that the processor won't have to retrieve it from the hard drive, which takes far longer. With Robson, you'll be able to put your PC into hibernate, and come out and start work right where you left off almost instantly, said Dadi Perlmutter, who heads up Intel's Mobility Group.
Robson also cuts power consumption because the drive doesn't have to spin as much as it ordinarily would. The flash in Robson will come in an add-on card or be integrated onto the motherboard.
Samsung, Microsoft and Seagate, meanwhile, all have their eye on the hybrid hard drive, where the flash is inside the hard drive. It stores necessary applications as well as keystrokes, URLs and other material that you put into your computer. When the flash fills up, it wakes up the drive, which takes the data, stores it and goes back to sleep. Technically, drives already come with flash, but they don't perform these functions.
Hybrids could significantly cut power consumption in notebooks because the drive, one of the primary consumers of power, stays asleep the majority of the time.
The two technologies aren't contradictory--a PC manufacturer could implement both. But, that would raise prices and be overkill to a certain degree. Thus, companies are lining up on one side or the other.
Perlmutter claimed that the hybrid drive could get delayed. Seagate refuted that, saying it will come out with hybrids in the first half of next year. Samsung also has said it will come out with hybrids next year. Robson, meanwhile, will come out in the first half of next year, too, and be an option in notebooks based on Intel's Centrino "Santa Rosa" platform.
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If you run out of RAM, windows uses a page file on the hard drive.
current model
processor>>cache>>RAM>>page file on HDD
new model
processor>>cache>>RAM>>Flash>>page file on HDD
Robson and hybrid is additional, fast nonvolatile memory, so enables fast boot and recovery from stand-by or hibernation. And will enable much faster launch of frequently used apps and user files. And will use much less power because the HDD won't spin up as often. It's all good... If the price is right.
Obviously it's only a matter of time before they release 20 and 30 gig flash hard drives, and then work their way up to 60 and 80 gig flash hard drives. Loading time would be amazing! Combine that with a processor with 80 cores, and new batteries that recharge in 30 seconds, and DDR3 memory, and smaller, thinner laptops with WiFi everywhere.... the future will be sweet!
Maybe one day they'll be able to inject it right into my body and I'll be able to communicate with it as though it was an arm or a leg or one of my eyes. Of course I would not use Windows then, and would probably switch to an Apple or Linux OS.
chipset would start at 512MB per processing core. By that point
you won't be able to buy a single core processor, and the quads
will be out, so we're looking at 1-2 GB of flash.
Now, if we had a manufacturing breakthrough and managed to
slash the price flash memory (which several companies claim
they are close to doing), I wouldn't be surprised for that number
to spike dramatically. Flash is so well suited for mobile
computing, and laptop market share is rising so fast, they'll
cram as much in as we can afford.
Moore's Law rocks on!
This way, the computer would still request information from the HDD, and the controller on the HDD would simply know to check the flash before the platters.
Might be able to improve performance even more if everyone was on board, but even without, I could still see it being fully functional.
What do you think? Are you in? Send checks, small untraceable bills, and M/O to:
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I'm not a Microsoft basher, as I run Linux and Microsoft depending on my needs, however I am very familiar with M$'s price gouging. So, i'd have to say no to your idea only on the amount of unneeded software you'd probably be trying to pack on there.
EIther that, or you'd end up having to put similar software, the sort of thing that you buy in the stores now that play 1000 of the old Nintendo games or whatnot.