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When SSD and USB 3.0 Come Together
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."
When Slashdot and Advertisements come together... Slashvertisements! You could have learned as much or more by reading the press release where it is revealed that "Enyo USB 3.0 Portable SSDs will begin shipping this now and will be available through OCZ's extensive worldwide channel." Thank goodness, I thought I would have to wait for the next now. Also per the pr, "the Enyo features a sleek, anodized aluminum housing" ... the choice of words implies that it's a desktop SSD in a box. It would be nice to know which one, if so.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
backing up files just keeps on getting easier, and faster.. it sure is great!
*hint hint hint*
From the summary: "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"
SSDs, whether they are internal or external will continue to be exorbitantly priced, so you're not getting larger storage densities for cheaper.
This development is nothing new... I use a deconstructed external USD HDD container and just swap on SATA 2.5" drives as necessary; a SSD would just be another drive to toss on there. While SSDs are significantly faster than most thumb drives, the question at the end of the day is: "Do you have the disposable income for this storage strategy?"
*insert pithy sig here*
...but for big-time storage, mechanical drives are still king. As the technology stands now, it is pretty much useless for large-scale storage due to many different things, not the least of which is the cost. That being said, I'm curious if by the time SSDs reach the capacity, price point, and reliability needed for long term storage if they will still be relevant.
Here's to hoping, though...I love the idea of an SSD, but they still need some advancements before I consider one as my main system drive, much less for storage.
Living With a Nerd
There are plenty of things on the market that address this issue. You can get 64 Gb flash drives on newegg for less than $150. I remember when I bought a gigabox that was 5 gig for more than that. If you really must have the extra space, I doubt that the max 256 GB model of this SSD is worth it, just get a sata dock, or a regular external, as the speeds of SSD are going to fairly useless on a USB 2.0 system most people have today. The other point to USB flash drives is their portability, I carry about three at all times in my pocket, I don't think I'd want to carry one of these in a pocket. It's interesting, but this is just a slashvertisment.
"It's ok, I'm completely secure as long as my iron is off"
http://www.doublespeakmedia.com/images/2006/05/frist.jpg
*insert pithy sig here*
Seriously:
Yet while you can pick up a 4GB model for less than the price of a meal, large capacity drives are still prohibitively expensive.
4 GB is not a large capacity? I can install Ubuntu in 4 GB. A DVD holds just over 4 GB. I keep a Win7 and an Ubuntu install on my 4 GB stick.
So someone is shipping an SSD with a USB 3 interface. If it's as big as my 4 GB stick, then you'll interest me.
Get off of my lawn.
What I'd like to have is basically a SSD disk that can be inserted like a floppy disk. A write protection switch would be nice, too. You'd probably just have a face plate somewhere near the optical drive, which connects to the motherboard or add-in card. This form factor would be nice, even if it was a bit thicker than the classic 3½ inch floppy disk. These small and flimsy USB memory sticks are a bit too easy to misplace. Hot swapping would be a plus compared to internal drives, and a light to tell if there's anything unwritten in the buffer/it's being written to. You'd eject with a button (which would be smart enough to not do it if there's stuff unwritten), and if it fails, either have a hidden button or something to remove it manually.
I mean obviously it's posers with more money than sense who simply must have the latest gadget just so they can show off that they're the first to have it, while being secretly disappointed and wishing that they'd waited for the next version.
But the iPad doesn't have a USB 3 port, so there's no overlap with people who might buy this and people who can use it.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
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.
I don't read AC A human right
Flash drives are flash drive. They are plugged in USB and recognized as such. SSD are using the same technology as flash drives with a SATA interface. External mechanical hard drives are using a SATA to USB adaptor to work in USB. So basically, all the technology is already existing.
They replaced the SATA interface with a USB interface (like in a normal tumb drive) or just dropped a normal SSD inside a normal SATA 2.5" external box et voila !
What's the news here ?
EULA : By reading the above message, you agree that I now own your soul.
It will be like the finger of god.
It'll make a big difference when the USB 3.0 systems arrive.
Minor point, but wouldn't "shitty balls" go better with USB? Trolls these days.. no class.
which is totally what she said
What about Light Peak? Why upgrade to a minor speed bump when the next available speed bump is hundreds of times faster?
Light Peak has enough bandwidth to replace USB 2.0, FireWire 800, DVI/HDMI, Ethernet 1000... all at once, on the first revision no less. Will USB 3.0 ever take off?
(And I mean normally, not through the use of third-party hacks or PE mode or whatever).
I mean, it's kind of getting to the point where with USB3 drives a person really could, for many situations, not even NEED a SATA disk connection except for the fact that Windows is too retarded to boot from USB. It's not hard to see a future USB4 standard on par with or faster than a current SATA standard or a line of motherboards that for size or simplicity's sake omit SATA ports altogether.
What gives with MS refusal to allow boot from USB? Even if performance is suboptimal either from a speeds & feeds perspective or a too-many-IRQs perspective (still true with USB 3?), the flexibility it would provide would be enormous.
And maybe that's it -- maybe once Windows can boot from USB it makes it hard for MS to keep tying an install to a "PC" since Windows installed to USB is kind of independent of the PC.
Just because its not enough for a major bank or for you to store your porn collection on doesn't mean it isn't enough for 99% of small businesses.
Can we please stop "disposing" of things, especially complex, hard-to-recycle things like electronic devices?
Didn't I read something about SSD including a USB (electrical) interface anyway? Or maybe it was one of the new SATA standards.
So you have a 16gb spanned/striped single SSD unit to bootup from, and one that uses DDR2 RAM in the GIGABYTE IRAM, instead of units that use slower and less lasting FLASH RAM (with FLASH RAM's slower write cycles and lesser longevity).
So, as an "alternate idea" here, well... You can do this and boot up into Windows by doing that with a GIGABYTE IRAM, and enjoy faster write speed on it "to boot" (pun intended), which can come in useful for say, pagefile.sys placement also plus logging and temp ops taking place faster than they would on FLASH RAM based SSD solutions (and more, like webbrowser caches too... really anything that performs writes as well as reads will gain on this type of SSD (one NOT based on FLASH RAM, but DDR2 instead)).
APK
Nobody wants to talk about the fact that these things are actually considerably more expensive than their already-high retail price. You MUST have the storage capacity to keep them fully backed up at all times. When a standard-issue hard drive crashes, it usually gives you some hint that there's a problem. Maybe it starts running hot, maybe it starts making noise, maybe you start getting write errors or the partition goes missing (but the data is still salvagable). In 20 years and more HDD's than I can count, I've never once had one just plain quit. I've had that unpleasant experience twice with jump drives. Fine and dandy one minute, dead as a carp the next time I plugged it in and hour later. Neither had been anywhere, done anything...just sat there on the desk waiting for a few minutes (to be accurate, in one case overnight). Attempts to recover data via software intended to address the problem were unsuccessful.
Until this problem is addressed effectively, I'm going to be very careful about investing in large SSD's.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Such an awkward phrase... if only we had a single word for it.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
There are other curious beasts out there, such as Kanguru's e-Flash which has both eSATA and USB connectors. It's steepish at $105+ for 32GB (vs $60 or so for 32GB USB), but not absurd. 64GB also available.
I'm sure it's a niche product that will go away after USB3 becomes widespread, but for now it's a nice mix of both worlds.
fencepost
just a little off
If you get "S" on your balls doing that, then you're doing it wrong.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
seriously, I wouldn't mind one like that because my system wont boot from external usb drive, but will boot from external floppy :(
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
Will light peak only work with on board video?
also E-net on Light peak you will still E-net as long light runs may cost a meny times more then E-net and light peak routers and switches may be very high cost.
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.
Why is it a big deal? I mean, did anyone not see this coming? We have the USB3 standard coming out (well, it's already out, but a lot of people still don't have the hardware for it) - was the application of USB3 to flash storage somehow not obvious? It was bound to happen sooner or later.
Bow-ties are cool.
When Slashdot and Advertisements come together... Slashvertisements! You could have learned as much or more by reading the press release where it is revealed that "Enyo USB 3.0 Portable SSDs will begin shipping this now and will be available through OCZ's extensive worldwide channel." Thank goodness, I thought I would have to wait for the next now.
When will "then" be "now"?
soon...
Bow-ties are cool.
... daisy-chaining. One of the supposed advantages to both FireWire and USB was that you could daisy-chain devices. But in practice, how many devices ever actually contained an upstream port so you could use this feature? I have a FW external hard drive that had an additional port, and I can and do use that as a link in a daisy chain. But no other device I own, either USB or FireWire, supports this. You have to plug them straight into the computer or get a hub. Since my main machine is a laptop and has exactly 2 USB ports, it's sometimes an issue.
I hope Light Peak devices do a better job at this. Lack of device support for daisy-chaining isn't a huge deal, but it's at least somewhat of a pain in the ass.
and find photo's here if you'd like to know more...
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Well, fucking someone up the ass isn't really high up on my priorities list, nor on the list of my girlfriends as far as I've known, so yeah I wouldn't know :p
which is totally what she said
I use rechargables in my mouse, it generally lasts 2-3 weeks before I have to swap.
I think the biggest problem isn't the amount of power the device draws, but more the self-discharge rate. A LiIon of the same bulk/weight would hold twice again as much power, but also wouldn't be losing 5-10% of it's charge per day.
It's the sort of application that's actually more suited towards alkalines. I had a set of those last for over two months when I was attending some training out of town.
If you can find some 'low self discharge' type NiMH cells, you might get a LOT more lifespan between charges.
I don't read AC A human right
These would come in quite handy in extreme environments. Well at least extreme in regards to motion. Very useful in say a rough terrain spy vehicle. With a device like this expensive, heavy, shock protection for a normal hard drive would not be necessary. It would come in quite handy in blackboxes, and such. In other words there is certainly a market out there beyond gadgeters. It would be a nice feature in a AI car, you could pack a lot of rules and patterns in and retrieve them in rapid succession. Oh, yeas, I see uses for this that would make it worth the high cost. You could just strap this into your lightweight self-driving EV prototype and gain a huge boost over your competitors.
DOH! There goes my secret R&D weapon!
Unfortunately, I see no where to buy one of these. Thank goodness Amazon still has one of Super Talent's 128 GB 3.0 USB RAIDDrive flashdrives! Whew!
http://www.amazon.com/Super-Talent-RAIDDrive-Flash-STU28GSRK/dp/B0037FU7AI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273175768&sr=8-1
If water can be cheaply broken down into hydrogen and oxygen.. Why does it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to put a rocket in orbit when America is surrounded by the stuff!
www.boznz.com Simple solutions to complex problems.