Filed under: Hardware, Portables, Rumors
Future Apple Notebooks likely to benefit from flash?
Another cool thing about the transition to Intel is the availability of more information for informed guesses about the future direction of Apple hardware. Since Apple is increasingly using technology also offered to other OEMs it's harder for Apple to keep likely future developments secret for as long as they have in the past. This informed speculation in APC Magazine is a perfect example. They apparently interviewed a Samsung engineer about the new hybrid hard drives that Microsoft is promoting for use with Vista and asked if Samsung had offered the technology to Apple. The Samsung engineer indicated that they had done so but that Apple had turned them down. This leads APC to conjecture that Apple is likely to use Intel's Robson flash chip technology in future notebooks instead. The flash chip module uses flash memory "as a 'smart storage' buffer between system RAM and the hard drive." This offers a number of potential benefits including quicker boot times and better performance on apps that access the hard drive a lot (since flash is faster than a hard drive), as well as improved battery life (since the power hunger motor in the HD is not spinning as much). Let's just hope that Apple gets out in front on this technology like they have with so many others.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan S said 9:34AM on 12-22-2006
Can anyone explain the benefits between this (Robson) and hybrid drives? The benefits touted in this article (and similar ones out right now) seem to be in relation to regular HDs. How does this Robson tech stack up against hybrid HDs?
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JonECat said 9:48AM on 12-22-2006
"since flash is faster than a hard drive", since when is flash faster than HD's? They are now where near as fast, I believe they are peaked out at 25MB's a second.
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michel said 10:03AM on 12-22-2006
"They are now where near as fast, I believe they are peaked out at 25MB's a second"
I'm not fluent in english, but I suppose he means "nowhere" . (or else I cannot understand)
Flash has less latency than hard drive. for sure. it will help to boot faster.
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michel said 10:03AM on 12-22-2006
"They are now where near as fast, I believe they are peaked out at 25MB's a second"
I'm not fluent in english, but I suppose he means "nowhere" . (or else I cannot understand)
Flash has less latency than hard drive. for sure. it will help to boot faster.
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Edward C said 10:16AM on 12-22-2006
Flash has low latency compare to HD which spin ups and down. Although the throughput of Flash is lower, its low latency helps and work very well with lots of small file which means spotlight will be faster as well as browser cache or any other apps that makes heavy use of small files.
I believe Robson uses Flash with transfer speed of 40MB/s Read and 20MB/s write compare to Desktop HD with 50 - 60MB/s Read. But it should be noted that Notebook HD are generally slower so the transfer speed of Flash and HD in notebook isn't all that much different as every one cried about.
And the question about hybrid drive. Personally i never liked the idea and i have always prefer Robson. ( Becoz i always think HD should double the size and cache as well as lowering power and leave all important fast file access to flash. Although that still seems a few years off ). I seems to record intel said something about Robson has an advantage being directly connected to the Chipset rather then accessing the flash memory through the SATA cable. ( Increase latency perhaps? )
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The Jeremy said 1:11PM on 12-22-2006
The benefit of flash memory in a hybrid drive is the reduced use of spinning the hard drive itself. That saves battery power. Apple must've turned down the offer due to cost factor because why would the company disadvantage its laptops in performance with other Vista capable laptops out there considering how much Apple is benefitting from the Intel switch and BootCamp? I mean, its embarrassing to Microsoft when Apple is heralded as making the best machines to run Windows on.
If I were Apple, I'd do everything possible to make sure the press labels it as such. Its like Coleco's strategy back-in-the-day of releasing its Atari 2600 adapter for the ColecoVision. Not many of them were sold, but many consumers bought the ColecoVision instead of the Atari 5200 (or the 2600) because they figured if there was ever a need to run 2600 software, they could buy the adapter. Similarly, if the general consensus from Joe Public is Apple makes the best computers to run Windows on, then the consumer will buy the Mac yet might never buy (or pirate) Windows Vista. Its piece-of-mind "security" that most will not take advantage of, like extended warranties.
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John Faughnan said 11:07AM on 12-24-2006
I think the main value is not speed or battery life, but rather hard drive longevity. The laptop is a terrible environment for a hard drive, and the key to longevity is bringing iPod drive technologies to the laptop. Spin less, reduce heat, more aggressive acceleration lockdown sensors, faster shutdown.
Hard drive failures are very expensive for Apple, they will do everything possible to double the life of the laptop hard drive (currently longevity is probably about 1.5-2.0 years average).
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