Comments on: Flash vs. hard drive battle heats up

By: michaelhill Arlington, VA

michaelhill Arlington, VA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:14:40 +0000

I have been an engineering technician for some time and predicted the end of the mechanical HD years ago. My friends though me to be crazy as the cost would be prohibitive. I contended the US government would probably use them on a wide scale basis and then the rest of us would want one. It only makes sense to me. Bill Watkins is thinking backwards. Imagine the amount of memory that can be put into a desktop tower – it's mind boggling. The machines will be quieter than ever and Microsoft will no doubt finally develop a working OS to complement such a system.

By: Dias, Seattle, WA.

Dias, Seattle, WA. — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:29:15 +0000

hard drives are not dead, and they continue to gain massive R&D expenditures, ATA and perpendicular recording are two off the top of my head.

Plus, the way data is sorted and store dis essential in reliable, fast data storage. If memory companies are using Seagate's sorting and storage code, they certainly should have to purchase a license.

By: Mike Schwager, Chicago, IL

Mike Schwager, Chicago, IL — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:28:14 +0000

Back in the 80's and early 90's, I was aghast at how big some of the software was getting (from 10's of kilobytes to a megabyte or more per binary!!) Now, it's hundreds of megabytes. So what's taking up all that room? …Not the code; it's the fluff. Software will get smaller when you start taking away associated macro languages and pretty GUIs. …In other words, forget it.

By: Qicmee, Minnesota, US

Qicmee, Minnesota, US — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:43:43 +0000

1. Check the grammar. It doesn't quote Watkins saying he will sue. It says that seems reasonable. Every HDD maker has patents in this area. Watkins is just more fun to talk to.

2. The customers (us) always decide when it's right to buy alternative technology. If you want an SDD today, buy it, but then don't whine about it being expensive, small, and slow.

3. R&D on HDD stopped? When? If R&D had stopped, we wouldn't see 1 TB drives for US$250.

4. The need for more storage is increasing. Whether this applies to your own photos, video, & music, or to the servers we download from, or to the businesses that continually expand their record keeping requirements. Seems like a good idea to store all that data on high capacity, inexpensive devices. Even though those have (shudder) moving parts.

5. Do you believe HDD manufacturers will never offer SSDs? Samsung already offers both SSDs & HDDs. Also, Samsung has refused to negotiate selling their HDD business.

By: Cyrax, Seoul, Seoul

Cyrax, Seoul, Seoul — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:52:45 +0000

Did he just say that he will sue if SSDs threaten Seagate's business? Wouldn't that count as malicious abuse of judicial system?

By: trollfighter

trollfighter — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:50:09 +0000

Actually (Tony) the wave of the future is supposed to be applications run off online servers. (Which carries its own risk)

True that flash prices are coming down, but even without moving parts, those little thumb drives sure don't long. Are they more secure inside the case?

By: Curbie, Boise, Idaho

Curbie, Boise, Idaho — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:18:06 +0000

Hard drive will continue to have a couple of advantages for the near future (3-? years). It is exceptionally cheap and nearly limitless on read/write cycling. Down side is mainly… power usage… always a big issue on notebooks.

Desktop, it will never be a decision. On a note book one must realize that data gets written and read numerous time within a session (just listen to a loaded old drive). Flash has a limited number of "cycles".

I have felt for a long time that the best computer would have a hard drive and a flash ready to "mimic" the system status. Shutdown copies over to flash, reboot occurs in a tenth of the time. Small power backup would also save session and current work..

Best wishes, Curbie

By: Patrick Dalton MA

Patrick Dalton MA — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:22:10 +0000

Flash memory is the future, and has already seen performance gains before new technologies are to be introduced. The low heat, low noise, and durability of the ssd's are much more sensible than the larger hard drives of today. They make perfect sense right now, and are a no brainer in the future.

By: Jeff, Silicon Valley

Jeff, Silicon Valley — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:19:13 +0000

Flash is coming to a brick wall: it's called "Hot Carrier Injection Reliability Failure". This is why there are a half dozen radically new memory technologies currently being worked on and none of them is entirely proven.

This is also why he is saying that he isn't worried: Flash is doomed and it's a free-for-all for what will replace it. Since nobody knows, Seagate is no worse off than anyone else in this respect. Worrying too much about it is foolish – I'm sure he worries about just enough.

By: Ron Dallas TX

Ron Dallas TX — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:19:25 +0000

So they are going to sue to keep innovative SSD manufacturers from taking too much market share… that's just great.