The article clearly says 16GB (i.e. GigaBytes).
Let's face it 16Gb (= 2GB) is hardly news -- palmtops have had more than that for some time. You can already get Pen drives with 2GB, I think.
It looks like the only significant thing that Samsung has done is to package it all up to use a HDD interface. No big deal, IMHO.
I've done some work with Flash in an embedded database application.
Flash is specced for 100,000 erase cycles -- in a 'disk' application this probably equates to 100,000 writes. However, after about 10,000 erases, the write speed decreases significantly.
In my application, I remapped blocks of data on a cyclical basis, so that all the blocks would get used the same number of times.
At 100,000 cycles, if you erased and rewrote the entire disk every hour, it would last for 11 years. How many people are still using an 11 year old HDD? (That'd be, what, 1GB or so?)
The key question is how much this will cost. The fact that its aimed at laptops suggests that it will be significantly more expensive than a HDD.
Another question: how long do we keep calling Flash memory devices 'Flash drives'? Or will the name hang on, like 'dialling' telephone numbers?
I don't get this "may be the single greatest games controller ever" hype.
People have been doing this stuff for *years* with flight simulators. http://users.senet.com.au/~dunkleyj/flight.htm is a page I first saw 5 years ago; it shows a 747 simulator made out of an old car. Last year I was lucky enough to 'fly' a 767, complete with full console, 2 actual 767 pilot seats, and all the rest.
What's the big deal about this car simulator?
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/06/10/ 020610hnopensource.html discusses how governmental organisations round the world (Germany, Taiwan, France, Finland, the Philippines, South Korea, and China) are tending more and more to leave Microsoft and head towards Linux and other open source software, generally to save money.
This British education survey is just another in the chain.
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The article clearly says 16GB (i.e. GigaBytes). Let's face it 16Gb (= 2GB) is hardly news -- palmtops have had more than that for some time. You can already get Pen drives with 2GB, I think. It looks like the only significant thing that Samsung has done is to package it all up to use a HDD interface. No big deal, IMHO.
I've done some work with Flash in an embedded database application.
Flash is specced for 100,000 erase cycles -- in a 'disk' application this probably equates to 100,000 writes. However, after about 10,000 erases, the write speed decreases significantly.
In my application, I remapped blocks of data on a cyclical basis, so that all the blocks would get used the same number of times.
At 100,000 cycles, if you erased and rewrote the entire disk every hour, it would last for 11 years. How many people are still using an 11 year old HDD? (That'd be, what, 1GB or so?)
The key question is how much this will cost. The fact that its aimed at laptops suggests that it will be significantly more expensive than a HDD.
Another question: how long do we keep calling Flash memory devices 'Flash drives'? Or will the name hang on, like 'dialling' telephone numbers?
I don't get this "may be the single greatest games controller ever" hype. People have been doing this stuff for *years* with flight simulators. http://users.senet.com.au/~dunkleyj/flight.htm is a page I first saw 5 years ago; it shows a 747 simulator made out of an old car. Last year I was lucky enough to 'fly' a 767, complete with full console, 2 actual 767 pilot seats, and all the rest. What's the big deal about this car simulator?
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/06/10/ 020610hnopensource.html discusses how governmental organisations round the world (Germany, Taiwan, France, Finland, the Philippines, South Korea, and China) are tending more and more to leave Microsoft and head towards Linux and other open source software, generally to save money.
This British education survey is just another in the chain.