Samsung intros 256GB SSD that may reach MacBook Air

[AppleInsider]

Samsung has introduced a 256GB solid-state drive that promises to kickstart the industry with twice the storage and twice the speed of earlier disks while also costing less to manufacture than past models -- and having a chance of landing in future Apple notebooks.

Simply called the 256GB FlashSSD, the Serial ATA drive reads in-order data at 200MB per second, or double the rate of Samsung's past 128GB drive. It also boosts write speeds, often a bottleneck on solid-state drives, from 70MB per second to 160MB.

But the real advancement, Samsung says, is in the manufacturing process. Past drives, including the 128GB model, have depended on flash memory using a technique known as single-level cell storage. While quick and reliable, the inability to store more than one bit of data in each cell results in a high cost per drive. The prices of single-level cell drives have often been a hurdle to notebooks, with options for the MacBook Air and other systems frequently costing $1,000 or more to switch to the faster technology.

The 256GB drive changes this by switching to a new approach to multi-level cell storage that allegedly solves the problems of the format. The technology allows data to be much more densely packed, but has traditionally been slow and short-lived. However, a new drive controller not only gives it the same speed as single-level storage but gives it the same kind of longevity, at roughly one million hours before a failure occurs.

As it's more efficient in storing data, the multi-level cell technology is also "considerably" less expensive to make, though Samsung has stopped short of revealing the exact difference.

Until now, Apple has left multi-level cell flash memory to its iPhone and iPod devices, which are less dependent on speed and heavy disk access, but whether the MacBook Air or other Apple portables will use the the storage is unknown. Samsung plans a 1.8-inch version of the 256GB drive that will ship before the end of the year, and has been Apple's sole choice for the MacBook Air's solid-state drive to date: a 64GB drive is used inside Air models configured with the SSD storage option.

Other potential candidates have surfaced since the introduction of the ultraportable, however. Intel is reportedly preparing its own line of high-speed drives for release in the next quarter, while smaller rival STEC is claimed to have wrested the contract for the MacBook Air away from Samsung.

The Korean memory chip producer itself doesn't provide any direct clues, but mentions that it's "actively involved" in helping integrate solid-state drives into the systems of every top computer manufacturer in the US.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Fishyesque]

*mind explodes*

I've just noticed how awfully empty my wallet is.

[Feynman]

And it will likely cost twice as much as the laptop itself.

[BWhaler]

I love my Air.

But a 256gig drive, with the upcoming faster Intel GPU, would be killer. (A better battery life would be a cherry on top.)

I suspect I will be buying the next MBAir upgrade.

[bobertoq]

Originally Posted by Feynman

And it will likely cost twice as much as the laptop itself.

Did you even read the article?

As it's more efficient in storing data, the multi-level cell technology is also "considerably" less expensive to make, though Samsung has stopped short of revealing the exact difference.

This is absolutely awesome. I really hope it will be used in the MacBook Air

Originally Posted by BWhaler

I love my Air.

But a 256gig drive, with the upcoming faster Intel GPU, would be killer. (A better battery life would be a cherry on top.)

I suspect I will be buying the next MBAir upgrade.

oh definitely. I can't imagine the joy of using a MacBook Air with 2 GB of RAM, 2.0GHZ+ Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 256 GB SSD, aaand longer battery life..... ooohhh geek lust.

[onceuponamac]

Given Samsung announced the spinpoint m6 500g at the end of 2007 and (but for France) you still can't buy one - my guess is there will be many competitor options available by the time this is actually shipping... if it ever does...

[McDavies]

Slightly off topic, everyone seems to be real happy with their MacBook Air. I remember a lot of negative comments when it was launched.

[zeasar]

Originally Posted by McDavies

Slightly off topic, everyone seems to be real happy with their MacBook Air. I remember a lot of negative comments when it was launched.

There is still a lot of negative comments. Trust me, by the time it gets the speed/battery/storage upgrades some people would still rant.

[Tailpipe]

This story is a classic example of why people find the tech sector so fascinating to follow.

What blows us away today will be commonplace tomorrow. It seemed to take a lifetime to go from SSDs with 2 Gb of capacity to 8 Gb. The sheer speed with which we've gone from 8 Gb to 64 Gb and from 64 Gb to 256 Gb is mind-blowing.

So, come Q4 we'll get a revised MacBook Air with Intel's Centrino 2 running at 1.86 Mhz consuming 17 versus 25 watts of power to provide more computing power and lower power consumption. Add a 256 Gb and suddenly the traditional macBook is only competitive on one dimensions; price. But even that barrier will come down. The MBA will have come a long way in one year. Technology will have finally caught it up.

What is also significant about Samsung's new drive isn't that it will make it into the MBA, but that it will probably be offered on the MacBook Pro.

Bring it on!

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Feynman

And it will likely cost twice as much as the laptop itself.

Originally Posted by bobertoq

Did you even read the article?

It very well could be twice the price of the MBA. There are currently no 128GB 1.8" SSDs and the 2.5" 128GB SSDs can be had for around $3,000. Even if you cut the price of 2.5" drive in half per GB (which is a considerable price drop) the price is still $3,000, and that doesn't even take into account the shrinking to 1.8".

[MiMiC]

Originally Posted by Tailpipe

This story is a classic example of why people find the tech sector so fascinating to follow.

What is also significant about Samsung's new drive isn't that it will make it into the MBA, but that it will probably be offered on the MacBook Pro.

Bring it on!

I'm hoping it makes its way into the Canon HF10 HD Camcorder which is limited to 16GB at the moment.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by MiMiC

I'm hoping it makes its way into the Canon HF10 HD Camcorder which is limited to 16GB at the moment.

Good point! HD camcorders can really benefit from these capacity increases and price drops.

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by Tailpipe

This story is a classic example of why people find the tech sector so fascinating to follow.

What blows us away today will be commonplace tomorrow.

Bring it on!

Soooo true.

You bring my 5 MB Apple Profile Hard Drive to mind on my 256 KB RAM Apple /// ... Did that ever make my three floppy disk drive Apple ][ look lame!

Talking of future possibilities ... I can't wait to see if the Wi-Fi manufacturers get hold of the current standard TV spectrum when the FCC auction it off. I've read (but can't believe even though I'd like to) it could enable a five mile radius personal wi-fi range.

[satchmo]

Originally Posted by zeasar

There is still a lot of negative comments. Trust me, by the time it gets the speed/battery/storage upgrades some people would still rant.

The rants about the lack of optical drive/ethernet ports will probably subside when competitors follow suit. Just like the removal of the floppy drive, Apple leads the way.

That said, the MB and MBP's need to remain fully featured and hopefully a touch lighter in their next revisions.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by MiMiC

I'm hoping it makes its way into the Canon HF10 HD Camcorder which is limited to 16GB at the moment.

It's not limited to 16GB, you can stick an SDHC card into it too, up to 32GB, which is SDHC's maximum allowed, though it could have been 2TB max. Anyway, 32GB + 16GB would give it a total 6 hours at its highest bitrate.

I didn't buy that model because the upgrade really wasn't that good of a deal, I bought the HF100. Name brand class 6 SDHC cards run $20/4GB, for the additional $200, it's trivial to buy more than twice that, and not have to deal with the irritating cable-intensive camera connection using the on-board memory requires, vs. just using a card reader. I've bought some 4GB cards so it's easy to archive a pristine duplicate of the original video file on a single layer DVD.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by satchmo

That said, the MB and MBP's need to remain fully featured and hopefully a touch lighter in their next revisions.

I predict that the MB/MBP line will remove the optical drive after the next case overhaul.

[sequitur]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I predict that the MB/MBP line will remove the optical drive after the next case overhaul.

Then you would need an external optical drive or another computer with an optical drive. Otherwise you couldn't update the OS. I have an 800 G4 w/no optical drive and I had to jump through hoops to upgrade to Tiger. I didn't like the idea of paying circa $100 for an external OD or even $30 for an internal OD just to upgrade.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I predict that the MB/MBP line will remove the optical drive after the next case overhaul.

If that's true, then I hope an overhaul wouldn't happen this year. I'm skeptical that a pro notebook would drop the optical drive so soon if it's this year. Maybe consumers can largely do without, but remote drive seems more complicated than it really needs to be. I would hope Apple offers a pilot program to sell their consumer software as a download by then.

Installing or upgrading pro software is irritating enough without having to deal with a separate drive just to install it. Final Cut Studio 2 is like 8 DVDs, then there's the need to write videos or do backups.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by sequitur

Then you would need an external optical drive or another computer with an optical drive. Otherwise you couldn't update the OS. I have an 800 G4 w/no optical drive and I had to jump through hoops to upgrade to Tiger. I didn't like the idea of paying circa $100 for an external OD or even $30 for an internal OD just to upgrade.

That is the mindset that you have to use a DVD drive for software installs. Besides the ever increasing internet footprint and speeds for all things digital, you could always use a USB flash drive to install apps. They are small and are getting cheaper every day. And even though the size of apps are growing the price is dropping and capacities are increasing at faster rates.

I'm not sure, but I think there are even some HW-based security measures that can be put in place on a Flash drive that can't be done with an optical disc.

Originally Posted by JeffDM

If that's true, then I hope an overhaul wouldn't happen this year. I'm skeptical that a pro notebook would drop the optical drive so soon if it's this year. Maybe consumers can largely do without, but remote drive seems more complicated than it really needs to be.

By "after the next", I meant after the one that is most likely happening later this year or early 2009. So I figure around 2011. I apologize for being equivocal.

Installing or upgrading pro software is irritating enough without having to deal with a separate drive just to install it. Final Cut Studio 2 is like 8 DVDs, then there's the need to write videos or do backups.

There is always something that won't meld well with future tech. A 128GB flash drive (or 2x64GB) will still probably be prohibitively expensive for use an installer in a few years. However, the example you provided wouldn't have to utilize such technology as fast since a good portion of the product would probably get burned to the ubiquitous DVD or up and coming Blu-ray.

[zeasar]

Originally Posted by solipsism

That is the mindset that you have to use a DVD drive for software installs. Besides the ever increasing internet footprint and speeds for all things digital, you could always use a USB flash drive to install apps. They are small and are getting cheaper every day. And even though the size of apps are growing the price is dropping and capacities are increasing at faster rates.

I was gona say USB drives but you beat me to it. Having the system recovery files on a USB has its advantages. For example, when you update your system online, plug in the factory supplied USB and it gets updated too. And you dont have to download all the updates if you need to restore your system, plugs in the USB, and BOOM.

[Jimzip]

Hooray for bike-to-work week!
And what a lovely article to wake me up on a Monday morning! (Wow I sound peppy... like, cheerleader-peppy. My apologies.)

Someone already mentioned it, but I think the rate at which flash is advancing is really impressive, let's hope we see these in MBA's before the year is done. Personally I'd love an iMac with a big fat 1TB of SS (or larger), but that seems a little ambitious for now. Either way nice work on Samsung's part, that's a nice advancement, and a beautiful looking drive!

Jimzip

[sequitur]

Originally Posted by solipsism

That is the mindset that you have to use a DVD drive for software installs. Besides the ever increasing internet footprint and speeds for all things digital, you could always use a USB flash drive to install apps. They are small and are getting cheaper every day. And even though the size of apps are growing the price is dropping and capacities are increasing at faster rates.

Are OS X upgrades (Tiger/Leopard) available? What about other apps? If not, you would still need an Optical Drive to transfer the app to a USB flash drive. I imagine app companies will eventually put stuff on USB's, but when? How long will we have to wait? In the meantime, we'll still need OD's.
What am I missing?

[PG4G]

Well, I suppose this is kinda tying into Jobs' view of the future: wirelessness and digital.

I really want the MBP to lose its CD drive, as long as they can get iTunes downloads happening. I don't use the drive for anything any more it seems.

iTunes downloads HERE WE COME.
MBP Air-esque, here we come!

[desarc]

when will iTunes get a better name? it's been so long since it was just for Tunes....

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by sequitur

Are OS X upgrades (Tiger/Leopard) available? What about other apps? If not, you would still need an Optical Drive to transfer the app to a USB flash drive. I imagine app companies will eventually put stuff on USB's, but when? How long will we have to wait? In the meantime, we'll still need OD's.
What am I missing?

I assume you mean the major updates since the point updates are already disc free and down over the internet. Once it becomes cheap enough, Apple could start to offer the major OS X updates through an App Store within iTunes on your Mac. You can then DL it to a Flash Drive or burn to DVD. Or... if you have enough space left an installer could create a partition for this major update, then copy the install files to the partition and then restart and do the upgrade.

If you don't have the bandwidth you could then purchase the flash drive version of the OS X update from Apple or any other retailers. Or, if you have the flash drive that came with your original Mac (looking toward the future here), perhaps it will update the USB flash drive with the next version of OS X.

I don't understand why you think you'd have to transfer to a flash drive if you have it on a disc. If the software is already on an optical disc and you have an optical drive you can just install from there. This is just a progression of getting rid of a large portion of your notebook that doesn't have the speed, capacity or durability of flash drives. Assuming that the prices are within reason already, Apple could offer 10.6 on a flash on a 16GB USB (or even FW-400) drive and it would work on any Macs with those ports.

I would expect that the natural order would be to start offering such updates only online or on Flash drives for sometime before you remove the optical drives from notebooks.

[PG4G]

Originally Posted by desarc

when will iTunes get a better name? it's been so long since it was just for Tunes....

Agreed.

I vote for iStuff or iHub

iStuff for the variety of the stuff involved with iTunes.

iHub because iTunes is becoming the hub of digital life these days media wise.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by desarc

when will iTunes get a better name? it's been so long since it was just for Tunes....

Originally Posted by PG4G

Agreed.
I vote for iStuff or iHub
iStuff for the variety of the stuff involved with iTunes.
iHub because iTunes is becoming the hub of digital life these days media wise.

Changing a well known and profitable brandname will usually hurt a product. Changing to an unknown, obscure term like iStuff or iHub would confuse the consumer and ruin everything about the name recogntion that Apple has worked so hard to create.

They removed Music from the iTunes Store, that should be good enough, unless you think Coke should change its name now that it no longer contains cocaine.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by zeasar

IHaving the system recovery files on a USB has its advantages. .....

Maybe. But they are too easily misplaced. The number of them that I have lost is beyond count.......

[wizard69]

This is my take on SSD, the manufactures are simply raping the customer base for little in the way of improvement over conventional disk drives. Until I can see a good explanation for the excessively high prices for these devices, I won't be a customer.

Lets face it these sorts of drives only have a few chips in them. At best a processor to interface to SATA, the flash chip(s), and a few support chips. There simply is no justification for a $3000 price tag on any of these sorts of devices. One can only hope that Micron and Intel are serious about getting their new technology to market at a reasonable price point.

The other issue is the use of MLC's. Frankly I'm not convinced that I would want to trust such a memory technology in a drive that has important info on it.

In any event if we ever get over this pricing stupidity I'd like to try out a SSD in my MBP. If they can exceed 300Gb in the near future, at a competitive price, I'd be very interested. They would also have to better the current technology HDD in terms of power usage and heat output. Ideally I'd like to see 300Gb at half the power usage of my current drive.

The other reality is that Flash may be just that, a flash in the history of computing. Lots of new and very interesting storage techniques being worked on in the labs that could easily replace flash in the near future.

Dave

[bigpics]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Changing a well known and profitable brandname will usually hurt a product. Changing to an unknown, obscure term like iStuff or iHub would confuse the consumer and ruin everything about the name recogntion that Apple has worked so hard to create.

They removed Music from the iTunes Store, that should be good enough, unless you think Coke should change its name now that it no longer contains cocaine.

actually, the Coca-Cola brand name DOES always remind me of the sh*t marketed to us -- whose insanity can only be seen in retrospect -- do you really think today's Coke, whether classic (not really!), Diet or Plus is any better for you than yesteryear's??

At least Bayer was not named after the branded Heroin it sold to American women in the late 19th and early 20th century. I've been collecting such early marketing scams on the photo album portion of my personal page if you want to see some glaring and enlightening examples.

as we seem to be spending more time in virtualized environments and less in the real world, we are becoming married to it. so I propose a virtualized mate to interact with in this space, called, of course, iDo.

and re rebranding the iTunes Store -- at some point this whole iThing may begin to look dated, even though it's been resilient. and iTunes and iPod and iMac probably all have "Q" (consumer recognition) scores off the charts.

but Apple, contrary to popular brief, is not the originator of iBranding, nor any tech company, as that honor, tho' in an ungrammatical case, goes to the original Tarzan movies -- which if not corrected would have led to the mePod, meTunes and meMac, and a blowup sex doll called uJane.

still, there are untaken iProduct names.....

a cheap, strong cologne: iStink
budget, wretched, but high octane booze: iDrink
renaming the "brain-training" subgenre of programs (Descartes would approve): iThink
a new line of microwaveable food: iEat
a website broadcasting alpha wave inducing signals: iSleep
a mobility assistive device with built-in mp3 player: the iWalker
a new high-tech computer desk chair: iSit
a site for politicians on how to answer tough questions: iLie
and a smoke for committed smokers: iDie

[Lorre]

If they're gonna start selling apps at the iTunes store too, they should just split the apps up into iTunes and the iStore where you buy stuff. It just doesn't really make sense to start up iTunes to buy apps imo... perhaps integrate it into Safari but then people who like Camino or Firefox won't like that...

[BenRoethig]

SSDs like this are the future, but it might take a couple of years for the price to get down far enough.

[Sam Damon]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Samsung has introduced a 256GB solid-state drive that promises to kickstart the industry with twice the storage and twice the speed of earlier disks while also costing less to manufacture than past models -- and having a chance of landing in future Apple notebooks.

Simply called the 256GB FlashSSD, the Serial ATA drive reads in-order data at 200MB per second, or double the rate of Samsung's past 128GB drive. It also boosts write speeds, often a bottleneck on solid-state drives, from 70MB per second to 160MB.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

As I have written in the past, pay attention to what Panasonic is doing. Some of the pro video users that hang out here know what I am typing about. The rest of you may need a primer on P2 cards.

If you're too lazy to surf, suffice it to say P2 cards transfer data at 80 MB per second, and that 64 GB ones were just announced at NAB 2008. Note also that P2 cards function as a RAID.

One would think there is some rich hacker-type that could hack a P2 card into serving as the main drive on a laptop Mac...

[sequitur]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I assume you mean the major updates since the point updates are already disc free and down over the internet.

I meant major updates like Tiger or Leopard.

I don't understand why you think you'd have to transfer to a flash drive if you have it on a disc. If the software is already on an optical disc and you have an optical drive you can just install from there.

NOT if you don't have an OD as you're advocating.

That is the mindset that you have to use a DVD drive for software installs.

I don't have a DVD drive. How the H-ll am I going to get it on a flash drive in the first place?
Tiger, Leopard, and other apps DON"T come on a flash drive. Until they DO, we still NEED a DVD drive. How long will that be? I don't see that happening soon.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by wizard69

This is my take on SSD, the manufactures are simply raping the customer base for little in the way of improvement over conventional disk drives. Until I can see a good explanation for the excessively high prices for these devices, I won't be a customer.

Lets face it these sorts of drives only have a few chips in them. At best a processor to interface to SATA, the flash chip(s), and a few support chips. There simply is no justification for a $3000 price tag on any of these sorts of devices. One can only hope that Micron and Intel are serious about getting their new technology to market at a reasonable price point.

You probably shouldn't buy it. It's not just about the capacity, though the highest capacity chips generally have the lowest yield rates. Using fewer higher capacity chips vs. more lower capacity chips can cost a lot more per GB, but it's needed to make the chips fit the package. Fast flash just costs more, you can't compare the price of an SSD against an SD card that might be rated for 6MB/sec speed (SDHC class 6 speed). The Samsung here is a lot faster than the fastest hard drive.

Most people don't really need the speed enough to pay the price, so they won't buy. For a consumer, there's little reason. But if you're using it as a rugged flight data recorder, then it's a drop in the bucket.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by sequitur

I don't have a DVD drive. How the H-ll am I going to get it on a flash drive in the first place?

This isn't rocket science. The point is not to buy a DVD version of OS X and then move it to a Flash drive, the point is to only have Flash based upgrades when the technology evolves to a point when it becomes feasible. Why is that so hard to understand?

Tiger, Leopard, and other apps DON"T come on a flash drive. Until they DO, we still NEED a DVD drive. How long will that be? I don't see that happening soon.

Really? Not happening soon? What part of my projection of 2011 and "after the next update" implied this was happening now. Didn't Tigrr come out in 2005? Why would you think a 3 year old OS would be on a format that won't be advantageous for several years?

[sequitur]

eally? Not happening soon? What part of my projection of 2011 and "after the next update" implied this was happening now.

I didn't see your 2011 projection.

Originally Posted by solipsism

I predict that the MB/MBP line will remove the optical drive after the next case overhaul.

The next overhaul may be next month.

Didn't Tigrr come out in 2005?

I was using that just as an example because you said, "I assume you mean the major updates since the point updates are already disc free and down over the internet."

Let's drop this because it seems like you're looking for an argument. I bow to your greater intellect.

[PG4G]

Lets assume the rate of speed increases to the internet continue (as they seem to have been pushed by mobile use and movie downloads) then it may not be all that stupid to anticipate movement to full internet base installations, and OS's may move to USB or firewire.

I would predict the next OS update occurs via USB (as in, 10.6) as the Air seems to be a new direction Apple will want to stick with.

[Messiah]

With one of these drives, and 4GB of RAM, the MacBook Air will mature.

[pyr3]

Originally Posted by satchmo

The rants about the lack of optical drive/ethernet ports will probably subside when competitors follow suit. Just like the removal of the floppy drive, Apple leads the way.

So Apple was the first computer maker in the history of computer to remove the optical drive from one of their models, eh? Or are you just trying to claim that Apple was the first *major* computer maker to remove the optical drive from one of their models? Are you willing to place a wage on either of those claims?

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

Maybe. But they are too easily misplaced. The number of them that I have lost is beyond count.......

If it comes to having USB pen drives and/or SD Cards with software on it, you'll just end up with a new market for containers for holding them (more so than there is now when they are basically only used for cameras/pdas). It's not like they are that much different in size than keys. How often (or how many) important keys do you lose on a daily basis? (on that note I know someone that once lost her atm card 4 times within the course of a year, so it's not like importance of an object ever stopped people from losing things, I guess)