SSDs, The Death Knell Of Hard Drives?

CBS Tech Analyst Larry Magid Looks At Solid-State Drives

(CBS)  It's far too early to declare the computer hard drive obsolete. But thanks to the tech industry's ability to trim the size of flash memory chips, it is now possible to make full-feature laptops that store their data and programs on "solid-state drives," or SSDs.

Traditional hard drives record data on magnetically encoded platters that spin around thousands of revolutions per minute. Data is retrieved via a head that floats over the platters.

A solid-state drive uses non-volatile flash memory with no moving parts, which makes it shock resistant. There is no risk of data being destroyed by a head crashing onto a platter. SSDs are also faster and more energy efficient.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Lenovo announced its new IdeaPad notebook series that includes a very small and lightweight model with a 64-gigabyte SSD. The IdeaPad U110, which will be available in March, weighs as little as 2.3 pounds and features an 11-inch-wide screen display.

These are Lenovo's first laptops aimed at the consumer market. Its ThinkPad laptops are very popular among business people, including road warriors who appreciate its rugged and lightweight X series. I'm writing this column on a 3.5-pound ThinkPad X60.

Lenovo is offering two other IdeaPads - a 15.4-inch model, which weighs 6.4 pounds and starts at $749, and a 17-inch version that weighs 7.9 pounds and costs $1,090. Both models come only with standard hard drives as well as a CD/DVD writer and reader.

All three Lenovo laptops feature a 1.3 megapixel camera with unique face recognition software that can control who gets to use the computer. When you first get an IdeaPad you "enroll" authorized users by having them pose in front of the camera. From then on, you just look at the camera to gain access.

I wasn't able to test this feature, but a Lenovo spokesman said that it's highly accurate and can't be fooled by holding up a photo of the person. Even without the face recognition software, building a camera into a notebook PC is a great idea. Companies like Logitech do a brisk business with after-market Web cameras, but there is something about having one built-in to encourage its use. Besides, as Apple's ads have humorously pointed out (all Mac notebooks and iMacs have built-in cameras), attaching a camera to a notebook PC is a bit kludgey.

The yet-to-be-released little U110 is clearly the most interesting of the three IdeaPads because of its size, stylish design and optional use of an SSD memory.

Lenovo isn't the first to offer SSDs. Milpitas-based SanDisk makes SSD that are currently being used by Dell. And there is speculation that Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs might announce an ultra portable notebook PC with a flash drive during his keynote at the MacWorld Expo on Tuesday.

SanDisk doesn't sell these drives to end-users and wouldn't disclose what they charge computer companies. But to get an idea, I priced a Dell Latitude D430 with and without an SSD. The model with a 64 GB SSD costs $2,508. By contrast, the same machine with a 60 GB hard drive costs $1,561 - nearly $1,000 less. I'm sure Dell marks up the cost of the drive, but the price difference between its hard drive models and SSD models is steep.

We can expect a similar price difference from Lenovo. But as we've seen over the years, early-adapter pricing doesn't reflect what an innovation will cost once manufacturers ramp up production.

I remember when a 16-megabyte compact flash card cost more than a 4 GB SD card does now. If Moore's law continues to apply, we can expect prices to fall as capacity doubles every 18 months or so. Indeed, SanDisk expects to ship a 128 GB version later this year. At CES, the company was showing a 72 GB version.

One of the nice things about these flash drives is that they can be put into cases that are the same size as traditional hard drives, making it easy for manufacturers to incorporate them into systems without having to do redesigns. But the casing adds size and weight, which is why SanDisk is also developing drives in a smaller case for companies that want to include them in ultra-mobile PCs, smart-phones, portable media players and other small devices.

[sevenveils]

The flash hard drive is cool. lenovo laptop computers are not.
Lenovo from my personal experience equals less than zero in warranty support and spare parts availability. I found I get the best product support for this brand from ebay. My recommendation, after owning 2 Lenovo laptops is to avoid this brand at all costs. It now is a CHEAP Chinese brand using cheap plastics, crummy keyboards and has nothing that resembles the IBM Thinkpad support network. How''d this article about flash drives get turned into a Lenovo advertisement?

[itgranny]

hmmm. you''ve owned 2, i''ve had over 30 going to my people. They''ve been dropped, spilled on, abused in every manner. I just had 2 5 year old machines go out because their hard drives went bad and it wasn''t worthwhile to fix them. I''ve had really good luck with them.

[matter77]

There''s another side to the solid-state hard drive. It''s easy to quickly destroy all contents of the drive. You can''t do that with an ordinary hard drive. You have to wipe, etc.
Criminals can make a solid-state drive fry in seconds, on command, encryption or no.

[matter77]

That''s why the military has already been using solid-state drives. If you''ve got less than a minute before someone captures the drive, what are you going to do with hard drives? Run around placing thermite on everything? Even with encryption, there''s the keys, and if someone DID get the keys they have EVERYTHING.
Ask Seagate where the keys are on their new HW encrypted drive. Some like IronKey fry the drive if you get the pw wrong so many times ... yikes! Just to keep you from possibly guessing the pw, which is all the keys are based on.

[erichsh]

You would think that Sandisk''s stock prices would hold up nicely given the growth potential of SSD drives. But it''s really tanked over the past few months. Maybe the emerging SSD drive market will help reduce the oversupply of SSD memory and bring Sandisk back up some day.

[cyberdjs4]

Dell/Alienware have been selling SSDs in their laptops since mid-2007.

They didn''t waste their time making an ultra-flat chassis. They were more interested in power savings, speed and reliability.

[p-syrus]

Lenovo is offering two other IdeaPads - a 15.4-inch model, which weighs 6.4 pounds and starts at $749, and a 17-inch version that weighs 7.9 pounds and costs $1,090.

------------

Make mine Linux! :-)

[hypnotoad72]

Until flash ram has a longer lifespan and realistic cost, it''s not worth the dough.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by hypnotoad72

The lifespan is entirely dependent on the quality of the I/O circuits, not any technology, but the ridiculous price will ensure the viability of HDDs for quite a while.

Also it is already possible to build high capacity terabyte drives at a production cost not much higher than these puny 8 GB models on the market now, but the manufacturers are making the fatal long term mistake of gradually introducing larger models, trying to con the consumer into paying repeatedly.

Because they refuse to see the train on the tracks that is the imminent danger of the US economic collapse and depression, their product may never make it to market at its full potential, and European and Asian markets won''t replace the US economy, as they too will be affected.

"You can''''t do that with an ordinary hard drive. You have to wipe, etc.
Criminals can make a solid-state drive fry in seconds, on command, encryption or no." Posted by matter77

I take you have never seen a hard drive that has been dropped, huh? Instantly totalled. Likewise one that has had a static electricity, or power supply spike, or MB failure surge, instant paperweight.

Even a boot sector virus can wipe your data instantly.

[rafterman1]

A 200gb 1.8 inch hard drive costs about $150. A 60gb SSD increases the cost of a notebook by almost $1000. There''s no way there is 20 times more expense (when you factor in the drive gb size differential) in an SSD drive than in a traditional hard drive. I think we, as early adopters (once gain) are being soaked by the tech industry.

[shanev137]

I''m for anything that''s faster, cheaper, and more durable.

[matter77]

brianbwb - incorrect on several counts. Dropping a hard drive does not destroy all the media. Even if it is inoperational, the disks can be removed from the drive in a lab and read. Head crash or no head crash.
Also, a static discharge only damages the PCB outside, the PCB can be replaced, even taking one from another drive, then the drive spun up again and read.
And boot sector viruses do not wipe all data, let alone instantly. If the raw sector corresponding to a logical sector is lost, you cannot immediately access the logical sector, but the data is nonetheless there and can be read raw. There are plenty of free tools to do this. Besides, if the Master Boot Record were all that was damaged, which is what a lot of the first viruses did and made users think all the data itself was actually lost, you can still replace the MBR and hunt for the old logical sectors. Data recovery people do this all the time. The data is not instantly wiped.
On top of that, do you think the SSDs are immune to damage from static discharge? In fact, in that case, the data itself could be lost. Since, the Nand flash devices are just as vulnerable to ESD as devices on the PCB of a HD controller.

[matter77]

If you DO want to destroy a HD fast, without smoke, I found the best way is to put it in a logsplitter, if you can find one. I can do four drives at once. Just move the wedge forward until it grabs the edge across the middle. You might have to put something behind it if travel is limited. Move the ram as far as it goes and the limit valve opens. Those drives are toast in two seconds and all the discs inside are crushed, the movement, everything. But then, you have to have a log splitter.

[Larry Fafarman]

The SSD''s are expensive now, but who knows about the future? A few years ago, hard drives cost about $1000 per gigabyte -- now I see hard drives for as little as 18 cents per gigabyte. Also, if the safety of your data is very important, the extra cost of the SSD may be worth it. It is amusing to see people complain about the "high" cost of computer components today -- I can remember in the 1960''s and 1970''s when computer time cost $600 per hour in uninflated dollars on computers that were much slower than today''s computers.

There are ways of making hard drives more secure against failure -- (1) backup by a tape drive or DVD and (2) simultaneous recording on two hard drives (in fact, with hard drives so cheap today, I don''t know why recording on two hard drives is not a more common feature). There are also companies that can recover all or most data from a failed hard drive -- this service is expensive but it is nice to know that it is available for recovering precious and irreplaceable data.

[beehive21-2009]

we what it.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by matter77

You are technically correct of course, however I was referring to the average users and businesses, those for whom the data is not worth the very high cost and effort of all of the measures you cite, to recover.

As far as businesses that have such data, if they have not already archived their data on CD, DVD, tape, or other offsite storage media, then their IT departments and the management should be sacked, they deserve any loss incurred because they were too petty to use their brains.

At any rate, my position re SSD stands, the policy of marketing now seems to be to establish an arbitrary entry point at around $500 to $1,000, then as prices drop, introduce bigger models at the same price point, pretending that some new tech hes been "discovered" that makes the bigger drive possible, when in truth the tech is already old.

My other point is that in the larger picture, the US economy is becoming no longer capable of allowing these "gradual" strategies, best to hit the market with the big guns now. There may not be 10 years left with which to make a 10 year plan.

Sort of like the Windows marketing strategy history, make it almost work, then charge for "upgrades"...

[alarchdu]

The SSD drives are the future, speaking with regards to my 35 years of experience in purchasing and using computers. There is always a higher initial startup cost (8-line LCDs initially cost more than entry-level colour laptops do now), but the price does drop. As well, mechanical systems such as disk drives are intrinsically more expensive: easy enough to increase capacity, but no so easy to reduce the costs.

[matter77]

brianbwb - I didn''t mean to go all tech on you, may have missed your bigger point.

In fact, I tried to make a comparison between the SSD market, and the rapid changes that took place in monitors. Look what happened there .. seems parallel.

You''re saying this happens so fast now, indeed, must happen faster and faster. I''m not sure what you mean by arbitrarily setting the entry price, though. I''m sure marketing people DO decide the price should be high to start because, especially while the volume ramps up, early adoption will bear that higher price. Say, the gov''t paying a lot because they need the SSD no matter what.

On the other hand, there is a real problem - the mfr MUST recoup a huge capital expense that was made to begin mfr''g. Some chip plants cost $Bs.

[dan400man]

Logsplitter?!?!? That''d be fun to watch! Hmmm, see if Youtube has a video...

[klingon69]

Even a boot sector virus can wipe your data instantly.
Posted by brianbwb at 01:12 AM : Jan 20, 2008
Yep, had a 40 meg get StonedII virus and became just an ashtray. Of course this was in late 80s

[vet_sk]

Fantastic. Perhaps a new medium so the Whitehouse can lose more emails.

Anyone here buy that at the Whitehouse level that a tech reused the tapes? Cripe! You know there must not only backups but they have off-site mirror servers with backups.

[seafang]

So SSDs are 64 Gigs, and hard drives are at one terrabyte.

For how many years have optical drives been threatening magnetic hard drives.

And the next generation of Microsoft Windows will likely eat up all that 64 gigs.

If we still had MS-DOS 3.2, we could probably actually get some work done with today''s computers; and in a reasonable time too.

[jakovo-2009]

How about just carrying a flash card with your choice of operating system in your wallet or purse. Then any generic machine will do. perhaps it''s the end of the carry around laptop.

[rational_1]

And the next generation of Microsoft Windows will likely eat up all that 64 gigs.
If we still had MS-DOS 3.2, we could probably actually get some work done with today''''s computers; and in a reasonable time too.
Posted by Seafang at 06:18 PM : Jan 21, 2008

Ha ha ha (ironic laugh). I agree with you. I''ve avoided Vista like the plague and, although I''m generally happy with XP (networking quirks aside), my office computer is running on Win 2000 and I haven''t bothered to change it because it does what I need it to do. A colleague just bought a super small laptop that runs Vista and it''s almost unusable (needs a lot more RAM). Is Microsoft really making their operating systems that much better with each version, or least enough improved to warrant all these hardware upgrades. I doubt it.