Sandisk Debuts World's Smallest SSD Yet 222
siliconbits writes "Weighing less than a paper clip and smaller than a postage stamp, Sandisk's iSSD comes in a tiny Ball Grid Array and boasts support for the SATA standard, which means that it can be soldered directly on motherboards."
mini-itx (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder if anyone will build a mini-itx board with one of these on? IDE is on it's way out and while you can get SATA disk on moudules a largish lump hanging out of a flimsy sata port doesn't seem like a very robust soloution. A board with one of these on would mean all you would need to add is ram to make a fully functional embedded PC.
Re:Make them cheaper, not smaller (Score:2, Interesting)
What is it with everyone and their demands from hard drive makers?
Don't make them smaller (in physical size) make them more affordable!
Don't make them bigger (in memory) make them faster!
Don't make them hold more, make them more reliable!
Did it ever occur to you guys that maybe, just maybe, SSD manufacturers only know how to do ONE thing?
Possible Applications (Score:4, Interesting)
Possible Applications of 64 GB integrated into the motherboard.
And that's right off the top of my head.
Re:Make them cheaper, not smaller (Score:4, Interesting)
I want a fast disk for my workstation/server.
In a desktop you can put in a SSD as your OS drive (which is where most random access takes place afaict) and keep a spinner for your data. Doing this is already reasonablly affordable.
However if you want a laptop with a SSD at the moment you have to either choose a SSD that can store everything you want on the laptop (which if you store a lot on your laptop means $$$), go for a monster size machine or sacrifice the optical drive (and pick your laptop from the very limited choice of machines that support replacing the optical drive with a hard drive).
With this a laptop vendor can put the SSD on the motherboard while having negligable impact on the rest of the machine.
Awesome! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Summary++ (Score:3, Interesting)
"160MB/sec sequential read and 100MB/sec sequential write speeds being quoted."
Which is the least interesting performance statistic, making me think the random access and IOPS is not that hot. Still, 64GB with reasonable performance, combined with a TB platter drive makes for one helluva laptop.
Re:That's a great idea! (Score:3, Interesting)
I just put a machine together for a Church's overhead display. Since they don't do much file storage on that machine I opted for a 32 GB SSD instead of going for a traditional drive since the price was roughly the same.
The machine it replaced didn't have a drive much larger than that and after installing Windows 7, office and Easy Worship I still have 16 GB left on the drive so the upper end of that size range is easily enough to replace your hard drive.
Re:Make them cheaper, not smaller (Score:3, Interesting)
Replacing a laptop's optical drive with a 2nd disk (SSD or HD) is a no-brainer and cheap.
There are several companies like NewmodeUs [newmodeus.com] which specialize in hard drive caddies to replace the optical bay... I'm running my MBP 13" with a Vertex2 (sandforce) SSD 60GB for boot/apps + OEM spinning disk for storage (easily upgradeable for now to 640GB, but I'm waiting for 1TB or df to report > 85% usage). Total outlay for the mod? Less than $200, with another $50 if I really needed a USB/FW DVD+RW external.
Re:Make them cheaper, not smaller (Score:3, Interesting)
Cheaper and higher capacity I'd say. I don't care if they've got some weight/size. 2.5" form factor for notebooks and very small pc's and 3.5" form factor for normal sized desktops is absolutely fine. My computer sits under my desk anyways.
And the computer I use the most during the day sits in my pocket.
Regardless of your primary system, Hard drives, even in the 2.5" form factor, use a lot of space compared to other components, especially now that the optical drives are being phased out. Along with that comes digital storage of the data that was traditionally stored on the optical drives. So what do we need more of? Storage space.
But as I explained above, smaller size of chips IS going to result in a cost reduction once production starts.
So we all win.
Re:That's a great idea! (Score:4, Interesting)
yes, but after a few months of windows updates (and the storage of all them, and the old files they replace being stuck in WinSxS) you'll have a 10Gb space left.
I initially installed windows 7 in a 25Gb partition thinking 'no-one needs that much'. Then I found it got quite tight for space, so I increased it to 30Gb. Now I find its quite tight for space (2.2Gb free out of 29.2Gb). So I guess I'll have to increase it again.
I wouldn't mind so much, but its obviously full of crap - as I install apps (especially big ones) mostly to my D drive to keep the OS backups small. At least its leaner than Vista was!