Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/356
19 WWW.hPLUSMAgAzIne.CoM Storage Goes Solid State Tim Ventura It's a problem of speed: hard-drives are electro- mechanical in nature, which means that when they read or write data, an armature has to physically move a needle across a rotating platter. This puts the brakes on both operating speed and miniaturization, and has manufacturers racing to launch solid-state hard drive (SSD) solutions. Today's best SSD's store data using DDR or Flash memory, but they're expensive and offer only limited storage capacity — great for MP3 players and digital cameras, but don't expect to see them in your next PC. however, next- generation products like Fusion-Io's nAnD-based SSD feature near-DDR access speeds and terabytes of capacity — fi nally giving this technology an opportunity to break into the PC marketplace. The applications of this technology are far-reaching: solid-state devices are integrated circuits, which allows them to benefi t from the same advances in speed and miniaturization currently used in processor development. Also, the near-DDR speeds of SSD devices may soon eliminate the need for computer RAM entirely, giving software developers new options in the way tomorrow's productivity applications handle memory and store data. S ure, it holds 500 gigs of movies, music, and data, but the demands of modern computing are starting to make that spinning silver platter in your typical hard drive look downright antiquated.