08-22-2003, 03:00 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Fuji Unveils 0.8in Hard Disk Platter
"Japan's Fuji Electric this month revealed the latest development in the ongoing shrinkage of hard disks: the 2cm (0.8in) platter. The current standard in micro disks is the 2.5cm (1in) platter. Drives based on the platter are already in development, Fuji said, though commercial products are still some way off. Fuji expects them to be used in handheld devices like cellphones and PDAs, which have traditionally been drive-less products."
Whoa. 8O Could this be the path to higher-capacity, more compact Microdrives? While most consumers will probably stick with flash for the foreseeable future, high-density magnetic storage has its advantages -- especially when large amounts of space are needed in very small, yet cost-effective, form factors -- such as very high-resolution digital photography.
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08-22-2003, 03:10 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 495
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two issues
1. battery life
2. failure rate
fuel cells may solve number one but reliability will always be an issue in handheld devices. mini hard disks have their place but i doubt they will stay very far ahead of solid state.
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08-22-2003, 03:24 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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I can see these things in stationary devices (ie, the CerfCube but imo there's too much risk of data loss/corruption otherwise.
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08-22-2003, 03:24 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 327
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1 personally think this is a waste of resources. The future of storage is flash. Period! :idea:
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08-22-2003, 03:45 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 593
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by dma1965
1 personally think this is a waste of resources. The future of storage is flash. Period! :idea:
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Future can be expensive, competition between different device types will always help drive down prices. Competition between manufacturers of the same product isn't enough to drive down prices since the vertical markets for flash memory comes from so few places.
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08-22-2003, 04:23 AM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 300
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ultimately flash...
Ultimately, I think that solid-state will be the storage-medium used in everything, but until that holocube is in my hands, I think 0.8" microdrives are great :-)
The only think I don't look forward to is Microsoft putting Windows Mobile 2005 on the micro-HD, and being forced to boot up my PDA, lol...
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08-22-2003, 05:36 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,466
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This is on my list of predictions for next year; PDAs with built-in hard drives. It's coming closer. Cornice makes a tiny hard drive which is built into Rio's latest line of digital audio players. By the middle of next year, I expect PalmOS or Pocket PC vendors to begin offering high-end (and high priced) models with embedded hard drives.
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08-22-2003, 05:37 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 123
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Other issues
Battery life and reliability are 2 good ones. But also:
Durability
Speed
Capacity
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08-22-2003, 07:01 AM
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2000 Posts And This is All I Get?
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,017
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by dma1965
1 personally think this is a waste of resources. The future of storage is flash. Period! :idea:
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Ten years from now, flash media will be replaced by human hair.
No need to buy the media, we only need to purchase the DNA writer.
8O
It is durable, low power, extremely cheap, stable, etc. etc.
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08-22-2003, 09:14 AM
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Swami
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 4,396
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Solid State vs. Disks
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Cortex
two issues
1. battery life
2. failure rate
fuel cells may solve number one but reliability will always be an issue in handheld devices. mini hard disks have their place but i doubt they will stay very far ahead of solid state.
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Really? That must be why the iPod uses solid state instead of disk storage. Oh, wait.... :roll:
Disks are far more cost effective right now. You can get a 30 GB iPod for under $500. Try getting 5 GB of any solid state memory for $500. For the price of a 2 GB CF card, you can get two or three iPods. Try getting a 1 GB SD card at any price.
For capacity and cost, disk media is far ahead of solid state.
For mobile devices, the battery life is certainly an issue, but you can get external batteries and power adapters.
As for failure rate, I've heard more stories about failure of SanDisk SD cards than about Microdrives. (Yes, that may well be because SD has a much higher penetration than Microdrives, but I don't know.)
Steve
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