Discussion on:

(Photos: Samsung bets big on flash memory)

Perhaps I'm confused, but doesn't Solid State mean no moving parts? That looks like a minature conventional hard drive to me... I would have expected the Solid State drive to be just that - a bunch of chips.

Although this is very cool and very useful for all kinds of purposes, I think there is still a step or two to go before it is Solid State.

I thought the exact same thing...

Why create a "moving-parts", apparently "conventional" hard drive to fit in solid state slot. (Which is what this looks like to me...)

Solid State is supposed to be just what it says, "Solid"...no moving parts.

Perhaps someone can shed more light on this?

The first picture is a conventional drive in a very small format. The second picture is a SSD/Solid State Drive which is essentially drive made of flash memory. No moving parts, much longer life and faster. The limitation currently is in capacity. The biggest ones I've seen in retail are 80GB.

James

So it was just a matter of poor choice for the first photo. I was concerned my understanding of "Solid State" was way off-base.

I'm really looking forward to Solid State drives taking off in a big way and eventually completely replacing regular HDD's.

Should greatly assist in keeping computers from suffering from the biggest component failure.

Some of us at my company are thinking about these as a place to back up our large databases as insurance.

James

One of the biggest advantages to flash memory or no moving parts is it ability to cope with knocks and bangs. You can put these devices in some rough enviroments where a hard drive would fail.

The draw back with flash memory is that they have a limited number of write operations, which means they can still wear out and therefore fail. There is technology in the drive to cope with this but in time even this will fail.

Bill.

I found my lost flash drive in the bottom of the washing machine tub - amazingly it still works, and did not loose any data!

You can say its 'solid state' all you want, but the first picture is the actual product (yes, a rotating hard drive) w/o the cover, the second I believe is the cover. In no way is this a solid state product in the same category as flash memory. See the manufacturer product info here: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/productmodel.do?group=72&type=60&subtype=76&model_cd=333&ppmi=1166#
A poor choice for Samsung and Tech Republic to represent their drive in this fashion in my opinion.

The first and second pictures have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Besides being two different capacities (40GB vs. 64GB), the first is a conventional drive in a CF form factor while the second is a flash drive, i.e. solid state (as stated in the last sentence of the picture's discription).

In reality, the URL you provided points to a "traditional" drive. Go to the following website and search for "SSD".
http://www.samsung.com
You should find a picture of a 64 GB Solid State Disk and some background information.
Best regards,

I do not think the definition of Solid State has any reference to moving parts. I believe it was coined to distinguish the technology from it's predecessor, thermionics.
The title "Samsung bets big on flash memory is certainly misleading.I do not think anyone would describe a conventional, albeit miniature mechanical hard drive as "Flash"
Peter Taylor.

This helped clarify the solid state issue regarding electronics, there are two links here with pertinent info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_State

nt

No. Solid state meant, at least in ancient times, no tubes only silicon, germanium and on and on.

Here's a link to a picture showing the typical hard drive as we all know it opened up, next to a Solid State Drive (SSD): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Open_HDD_and_SSD.JPG

read James' post. It explains it easily. What you're saying has absolutely no relevance to the conversation...

As shown with the link I previously provided, the first drive pictured is a conventional, albeit small, hard drive in the Compact Flash II card form factor. Since it does have moving parts, and does not rely on solid state memory in any significant way, it is not 'solid state'. Still very cool, but off topic considering the title of this forum, 'Photos: Samsung bets big on Flash Memory'

My error on the second picture, that is the object of this discussion. The forum would have been less confusing and more informative had the editors not mixed apples and oranges with regards to the subject, and provided more pictures and info on the actual flash devices, rather than pics of conventional storage media not related to flash (solid state)technology. Regards, Tb

Stick to one set of units: I'm forever telling students off for crossing units.

mm or inch please (preferrably mm!).

Consider your wrists slapped!

-AS

So sorry for having offended your Euro-feelings! Since I live America, where this thread originated, I prefer inch in the decimal system (not fractional). I don't need no stinkin' mm's and you can keep them on your side of the pond. But I do agree with you that measuring systems shouldn't be mixed .
Thank you for your time.

I prefer "English" to "European", which makes it more ironic when the Imperial system is referred to as English Units!

Though if you want to call them Imperial Units, I've got a funny story about turning the signage of a certain London College "Metric".

People actually get taken to court over here for selling apples by the "Lb" or "oz", for not using the Metric system, despite the EU ruling that people were permitted to use the older system.

Having just had a baby, I always laugh when UK we use everything metric except baby's birth weights and long distances concerned with cars (miles, MPH and MPG).

-AS

thing was in inches on them just like the US. Since they invented that "metric" I figure it is up to them what they want to do.

Very interesting input though! Thanks a. southern!

Hint was the British Car Industry, we don't have any British car companies anymore, they're all owned by french/german/italian/japanese/chinese/indian companies now.

(n.b. I think Aston Martin might still be british, and Triumph bikes).

Sad, but true.

-AS

nt

I was the switch over generation, I think.

I was initially taught what an inch was, and still use it in work (as an engineer) to this date, but was slapped (I kid you not) for using it, instead of CM(?!?!?)

Then I got (metaphorically) slapped for using cm instead of SI units (like mm or m) from age of 16 onwards.

At 18 I worked for the steel industry and had to use all of the above, then went to Uni and got slapped for using anything other than SI units again.

Ironically, that was Imperial College, taught in English.

"Four decimal places good, two decimal places bad....." or other such mantra.

Now I get students not setting up ProE right and designing with a Inch/pound/second part, specifying lengths in Centimetres (i.e. out by a scale factor of 2.54) and wondering why I kick off for mixing units and not including a GA with outline dimensions with their STL files.

It happens often enough that I've got a MapKey for converting all units to centimetres and back to correct size millimetres using the units function.

arggghhhhh!