From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 15 09:58:14 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 726D316A41F for ; Thu, 15 Dec 2005 09:58:14 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ragnar@gatorhole.se) Received: from mail.packetfront.com (mail.packetfront.com [212.247.6.198]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE9FA43D45 for ; Thu, 15 Dec 2005 09:58:13 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ragnar@gatorhole.se) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.packetfront.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C3DA2A3FBB; Thu, 15 Dec 2005 10:58:11 +0100 (CET) Received: from mail.packetfront.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (mail [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 22129-03; Thu, 15 Dec 2005 10:58:11 +0100 (CET) Received: from [192.168.1.159] (unknown [192.168.1.159]) by mail.packetfront.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 84DA9A3FB7; Thu, 15 Dec 2005 10:58:11 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <43A13E1B.9060106@gatorhole.se> Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 10:57:48 +0100 From: Ragnar Lonn Organization: Packetfront User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8 (Windows/20040913) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Bob Willcox References: <439F7AF3.7000709@vault-tec.de> <20051215025653.GA35383@rancor.immure.com> In-Reply-To: <20051215025653.GA35383@rancor.immure.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20030616-p10 (Debian) at packetfront.com Cc: Alexandre DELAY , freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HDD X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 09:58:14 -0000 Bob Willcox wrote: >On Wed, Dec 14, 2005 at 05:45:53PM +0100, Alexandre DELAY wrote: > > >>Don't you think that flash drives are also a good solution? >> >>I am sure that it will be the future replacement for hard drive disks. >>see http://www.memtech.com/ for example >> >>With no buffer and 1ms access delay you minimise write failures. It is an >>interresting solution. >> >> > >Hmm, I see no prices listed on the Memtech web site (did I simply >miss them?). So, what does a 96GB flash drive cost in comparison to a >magnetic disk hard drive of similar capacity? > >Stories of the impending demise of magnetic disk drives have been >circulating since at least the late '70s (back then I seem to remember >that bubble and/or CCD memory was to spell their doom). So far, it >appears that nothing has come along that has been able to compete on a >cost per byte basis. Flash memory might be the technology to do it, but >somehow I doubt it. > > I like to build silent PCs on my spare time and avoiding any moving parts is of course a good way to achieve this goal. This makes me very interested in any memory-based hard disk replacements but so far, they seem to be hideously expensive. You have to pay over $1000 for 8 GB of storage. Multiply that with 10 or so and you're likely to have the cost of that 96GB flash drive. I too thought that memory disks would take over some five years ago or so, but conventional hard disk technology has managed to stay ahead all the time, providing lots more storage per dollar and often also throughput rates almost matching that of the solid state memories. I think we will see a shift sometime, but I've stopped trying to predict it. Hard disk technology has such a big lead that it may take a while yet, I think. /Ragnar