[Mumbodog]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/06...0-rpm-raptor/1

[CrazyComputerMan]

That's a bit fast... U wanna buy it?

[TechGuy]

Sounds like a temporary measure to keep WDC alive while solid state starts to take over.

[Bloodyskullz]

WD will probably join the production of SSD drives later in the future.

Still, 20k RPM is insanely fast. Ridiculously over priced when the final production is done?

[CrazyComputerMan]

If we use that... do you think we might dont need RAM

[ferrija1]

About time they start speeding up hard drives rather than just making them bigger.

Sounds like a temporary measure to keep WDC alive while solid state starts to take over.

You can't be serious, SSDs have a long way to come. They cost upwards of 20 times hard drives for their minuscule storage capacities and have limited write cycles. Not to mention you could build a RAID array that's faster and larger an SSD drive for less money.

[TechGuy]

You could definitely build a cheaper and larger RAID array -- but faster? I'm not sure about that one. SSDs are pretty darn fast, and I'm not sure even a well-maintained RAID5 or 10 could match those read speeds. What's especially hot is SSD RAID arrays. Talk about fast!

Even so, you're right -- SSDs are crazy expensive for a little bit of space. But, I think that will change, and change quickly as manufacturing over the next year.

[JohnWill]

They still need to address the limited write cycles, I can see this being an issue in the coming days. Writing to the FAT or MFT continually for a disk being updated all the time can probably quickly count up to the maximum write cycles for FLASH memory.

[ferrija1]

Originally Posted by TechGuy

You could definitely build a cheaper and larger RAID array -- but faster? I'm not sure about that one. SSDs are pretty darn fast, and I'm not sure even a well-maintained RAID5 or 10 could match those read speeds.

A conventional RAID array could beat SSD drives in certain situations, namely random writes, which SSD seems to be behind in.

[new tech guy]

Another achille's heel i could see with SSD devices is that when they die, they die. Meaning that if sectors start to go and the device fails, there are no recovery tools to try to pick off what you can from that drive. That evolution will give new meaning to the word "backup". Although if they can do what JohnWill has stated and solve the write cycle problem, i do not think those things will ever die as it eliminates mechanical parts.

[JohnWill]

All of the designs use "wear leveling" logic to avoid continual writing to one spot on the disk. However, until these units get some running time under their belt, I'll remain cautious