Hard disk price will plummet very soon

[Macgyver]

Do you think DVD with super high capacity will replace HDD one day?

It won’t replace HDD. HDDs will just become optical. There are a few companies working on holographic high-density storage devices. Possibly in the range of a terabyte of storage, with a transfer speed of a gigabit/sec. That would be enough to put even the best magnetic drive to shame.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/holographic-memory.htm
(there are better articles out there but i couldn't find the one i read so i gave up)

Also there is a new type of disc that is coming out that beats out DVDs. The Blu-ray disc comes in 25 GB and 50 GB sizes.
http://www.blu-raydisc.com/general_information/Section-13577/Index.html

 

[Anttech]

Flash mem has I/O of quicker than GB/s already

 

[hitssquad]

Transfer rate of flash memory

Flash mem has I/O of quicker than GB/s already

Which flash is that? Lexar markets the world's fastest Compact Flash and it sustained-writes at only 12MB/sec (80x).

 

[hitssquad]

Gigabit transfer rates, holographic vs magnetic storage

There are a few companies working on holographic high-density storage devices. Possibly in the range of a terabyte of storage, with a transfer speed of a gigabit/sec. That would be enough to put even the best magnetic drive to shame.

Magnetic drives are already more than halfway there, at http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20031119/. They may arrive at gigabit/sec speed soon with the advent of 20K RPM drives and continuously greater storage density.

 

[Macgyver]

What is the max transfer rate of IDE ribon cable?

 

[russ_watters]

100 MB (that's megaBYTES)/sec is the current fastest standard.

 

[hitssquad]

ATA/133 was introduced three years ago, Russ.

 

[russ_watters]

ATA/133 was introduced three years ago, Russ.

Oops - I should know that (I have it).

 

[alexkerhead]

there is not noticable improvement of SATA over ATA-133, ATA-133 is still fast, and upgrading just to have SATA would be worthless.

 

[hitssquad]

Reasons to step up to the SATA interface

For most drives, the increased bandwidth might not effect much of an improvement in perfromance, but http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&depa=1 uses the SATA interface. The Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA hard drive is reportedly a very fast drive, and one might imagine that its performance would be hindered by using the lower-bandwidth IDE ATA/133 interface. There are no drives that spin faster than 7.2K RPM that use the IDE interface, and if you want one without going to SCSI or fibre channel you will have to opt for SATA.

Additionally, the SATA interface offers RAID capability, and the IDE interface does not.

Tangentially, it appears that all laptops and laptop hard drives https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?mode=hybrid&t=40635 the SATA interface.

 

[Anttech]

Which flash is that? Lexar markets the world's fastest Compact Flash and it sustained-writes at only 12MB/sec (80x).

Yeh sorry my bad, I was thinking of PuRAM that i-go were doing (which has an unbeilevable I/O)... Seems they have gone bust www.go-l.com

Anyhow it is similar to Flash

 

[hitssquad]

PuRAM and Rocket Drive as high-speed solid-state 'disks'

There are http://notebookforums.com/archive/index.php/t-7934 . The Rocket Drive is simply a PCI card with four DIMM slots on it and that simulates a hard drive. You can use four of them at once for up to 16GB of high-speed access. It features an external power supply so, I would imagine, just like with a regular hard drive the data does not go away when your computer is turned off.

It has been mentioned on the internet that a RAID array of flash card might provide fantastic access times and data throughput. It has also been mentioned that http://www.m-sys.com/ (supplier of self-contained flash computer chip devices called DiskOnChip to the military and other high-performance buyers) offers flash drives of up to 36GB. If they do offer capacities that high, it would be surprising to me since they historically (1998-~2000) seemed to be struggling to expand their flash capacities.


http://www.igo.com/default.asp is an unrelated company, by the way.

 

[alexkerhead]

Additionally, the SATA interface offers RAID capability, and the IDE interface does not.

really?
I could swear I owned a Gigabyte mobo with IDE raid channels?

this is not my mobo, but it is a IDE raid mobo
http://www.aberdeeninc.com/abcatg/mb6601.htm
maybe http://www.aberdeeninc.com/abcatg/mb6601.htm could help with your research?

 

[hitssquad]

Thanks for the correction. I didn't know until you told me just now about IDE RAID. I had thought that a major reason for excitement about SATA was RAID capability.

 

[alexkerhead]

Thanks for the correction. I didn't know until you told me just now about IDE RAID. I had thought that a major reason for excitement about SATA was RAID capability.

yeah, the IDE raid is very uncommon and that mistake is extremely common, but I knew, becuase I baught a Gigabyte mobo a long time ago, that had 4X IDE channels for RAID 0 and 1 setups, and there weren't many compatible HDDs for it back then, it used ATA-133 UDMA6 HDs only.

 

[vsage]

Do you think DVD with super high capacity will replace HDD one day?

Check out bluray technology by Sony. It's expected to replace the current DVD standard by 2010. As a side note, I have nearly 500 gigs in *unlicensed* tv shows (most of which is in japanese) so I think I would be a prime audience for these new high capacity drives.

 

[alexkerhead]

"chip" drives are in progress now, huge thumb drives, up to 76GB are available now as a server package.

 

[russ_watters]

Thanks for the correction. I didn't know until you told me just now about IDE RAID. I had thought that a major reason for excitement about SATA was RAID capability.

Well, one of the benefits of SATA is that you can plug a whole lot of devices into it, and I think that means any SATA controller can easily do RAID.

 

[alexkerhead]

Well, one of the benefits of SATA is that you can plug a whole lot of devices into it, and I think that means any SATA controller can easily do RAID.

IDE raid config
2x drives per cable, and 2x connectors

sata raid config
1x drive per cable, and 4x connectors

 

[russ_watters]

IDE raid config
2x drives per cable, and 2x connectors

sata raid config
1x drive per cable, and 4x connectors

Fair enough - I thought you could daisy-chain them.

 

[alexkerhead]

Fair enough - I thought you could daisy-chain them.

thats scsi

 

[gazzo]

Seagates are cheap(ish) here. 120gb 7.2k $131 (bout 70-80US), or a Seagate 80gb 7.2k for $91 (bout 45US)

Woohoo!

It will be interesting, seeing what happens in the next few years. USB Flashdrives are dirt cheap (well compared to the past) I just bought a 128mb for ~10US! score =)

Everything is cheapest in Malaysia and US anyway isn't it? :(

 

[hitssquad]

New Zealand exchange rates

Seagates are cheap(ish) here. 120gb 7.2k $131(bout 70-80US)

http://discovernz.co.nz/currency/smlconv.html .

or a Seagate 80gb 7.2k for $91 (bout 45US)

http://discovernz.co.nz/currency/smlconv.html .

 

[alexkerhead]

http://discovernz.co.nz/currency/smlconv.html .



http://discovernz.co.nz/currency/smlconv.html .

I think he may have been talking about store prices, but thanks for the links.

 

[CharlesP]

I need small 5 to 20 Gig hard drives cheap (=$0.50/gig). Where are they?

 

[hitssquad]

You are in the market for hard drives that cost $2.50? For comparison, a gallon of milk costs ~$3.00.