Flash vs. hard drive battle heats up

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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

I know why people will pay more for less space. When your 250GB drive dies with all of your photos and music, you will be very unhappy. Moving parts bring big problems. Plus, backing up 32-64GB is much easier than 250-320GB. I just makes sense to have solid state in a laptop or portable device.

So his choice is to sue instead of innovating. Score another one for the wonderful American patent system and patent lawyers. The only loser will be the consumer.

“Why don’t the software manufactures work on programs that don’t require so much storage space.”

What you are really trying to suggest is that people stop downloading pr0n. Aint gonna happen.

The comment about an infringing patent right and the possibility that Seagate may sue if the this becomes to heated is just wrong. Talk about a sore looser if you cann’t have it your way then hurt someone, That pretty much sounds like what my 6 year old does not the CEO of a large company course I can’t be to surprise from what I have see business is run by a buch of little kids anyways.

CEO’s are only interested in earnings-whether it be per share per quarter or otherwise. Why embrace flash drive technology when you can keep flogging spinning magnetic drives which are basically dead tech from the 50’s and continue to squeeze money from it. The R&D on magnetic drives has been eliminated for a long time now and this is about “clear” profit taking. I hope responsible flash drive makers respond with large affordable, reliable flash drives that drive the irresponsible conventional hard drive makers into submission.

Ken from Chicago - Thank You for the WDP 250 info. I have a full-size WD 160gb now, but need another and was looking to buy a full-size. Didn’t know they had such small 250-320gb drives, this is great. I’m buying one, this Spring. I appreciate the FYI.

btw - it’s a matter of time until Flash drives take over as the price drops. you cannot stop progress. and i agree software is wayyy too bloated/fat these days, it’s ridiculous and you need a top speed/memory machine to run most programs now.

however when Apple replaced the HDD with a Flash drive in its iPods they did at a time when Flash drive prices dropped to 2x the cost of an HDD drive holding equal capcity. so SSD prices may not necessarily need to drop to reach parity with HDD’s for mass-scale replacement of HDD’s with SSDs in laptops

an extra $1300 for a tiny 64GB SSD
even if this came down 10 or 20%, i’d still want a much larger drive for my laptop

With the speeds internet is now working, you’ll have all your big file on a PC at home, and have just a small silent-light-wight (SSD) drive on all your other portables.

As you suggested…the bloat-ware is an industry scam. Waste memory and sell more chips. Why do you think Vista runs so slow and is built on waste…to force and mandate the purchase of new machines that have to be faster.

I’m not sure why people would pay more for less, but for $139, Western Digital Passport 250 Gig portable hard drive (about the size of a thin original I-Pod , allows you to take along more storage than you’ll ever need. It comes in different sizes up to 320 Gig.

Why don’t the software manufactures work on programs that don’t require so much storage space.