When SSD and USB 3.0 Come Together 158
An anonymous reader writes "USB flash drives have been a quiet revolution in computing. Their rise broke the death grip that the floppy drive had on the PC industry, and smaller capacity models have become cheap, disposable means of data transport and distribution. Yet while you can pick up a 4GB model for less than the price of a meal, large capacity drives are still prohibitively expensive. Meanwhile, solid state drives (SSDs) also utilize flash memory, but masquerade as mechanical hard drives rather than USB storage devices. Now it seems the two technologies are bashing into each other, with this article pointing to OCZ's new Enyo USB 3.0 SSD — a rather curious beast that looks like a thin external hard drive and connects via USB, but houses an SSD inside."
Finding standards is a pain.. (Score:4, Informative)
SATA 2.0 - 3 GBit
SATA 3.0 - 6 GBit
USB 2.0 'highspeed' - 480MBit (Tricky fact: USB 2.0 connection can still be 'lowspeed')
USB 'superspeed' - 4.8 GBit.
Going by what the article says, I think that the e-sata specification should have included some power providing abilities. Preferably enough to run a 2.5" HD/SSD on it's own.
I mean USB specifications are actually changing to be able to provide even MORE power. Looking at the octopus nest behind my computer, I count elimination of cables as a GOOD thing. If I could have a Monitor with 1 cable(at the cost of an even beefier power supply in my computer), power my DSL modem via PoE, I'd be happy. I love my bluetooth mouse, but am too paranoid to go with a wireless keyboard until they come out with one with more serious encryption.
Re:Yeah... (Score:3, Informative)
they still need some advancements before I consider one as my main system drive
What kind of advancements are those? I've been using one for my main drive for the last year and it's great. At 32GB I do have a distinct lack of music storage space, but I have a 16GB SDHC card in the side for caching subsets of my music, as well as external HDD with all of my music on it.
Re:Finding standards is a pain.. (Score:1, Informative)
Funny that you mention this, because this is EXACTLY what Apple was trying to do a full decade ago with the Apple Display Connector. [wikipedia.org] It was a single cable that ran from the case to the monitor that carried power, DVI, USB, and Firewire. It was incredibly handy, and it got rid of a lot of the tangle behind the desk. Of course, at the time everyone called it unnecessary because it was coming from Apple. Not surprisingly, however, this is the type of change that can only happen when it's being forced on the industry by a single company.
Re:When Slashdot and Advertisements... (Score:2, Informative)
Well fuck, what do you expect on a part TECHNOLOGY website? People arguing over Windows, Mac and Linux? That's what 4chans /g/ is for... and Linux articles. (sadly)
This is actually a fascinating short article / long summary on the history of the devices.
And since it is a USB3 SSD, that is a pretty big deal to be honest, even if the lines "this is an advertisement" were present as well.
There is nothing wrong with advertising a product, especially if it is one of the reasons we even visit this website, to discuss things relating to technology and science.
I'd have probably not heard about this at all until it was already out for like a year.