Samsung introduces solid state laptop drive

Link: Samsung introduces solid state laptop drive
Filed under: Hardware News, Technology News

Samsung has made its 32GB solid state laptop drive available in the UK through distributor Just Rams.

Solid state drives (SSDs) differ significantly from traditional hard drives because they contain no moving parts. This means that they are faster, more reliable and consume less power.

With no moving parts they run at a cooler temperature and battery life is extended by around 15%. As they generate less heat, energy-savings are also made on cooling.

However, SSDs are substantially more expensive than regular hard drives. Samsung’s 32GB unit is priced at £350 plus VAT, compared with £65 for a regular 100GB hard disk.

Samsung’s SSD is based on 4Gb flash memory chips, although a 64GB SSD with 8GB chips is expected to be available in June or July for around £700. It weighs 51g, around half the weight of a mechanical 2.5-inch hard disk, and consumes 0.5W, compared with 2.4W.

The Samsung SSD uses a technique called wear levelling which spreads the load of erase/write cycles over all cells on the chip. Traditional drives start at the same point each time causing cell failure. The controller ignores each cell as it fails.