Future of Storage

For years and years the main storage device in a computer hasn't changed much. Removable storage, in the last 30 years, has gone from floppy disks holding 1.44 MB to Blue Ray discs holding 128 GB (BDXL), with many options available both in the past and the present, like CDs, DVDs, USB drives, etc. For a computer main storage device, though, we have been stuck with Hard Disk Drives (HDD) since they came up.


Only recently a real alternative reached the computer market in the form of Solid State Drives (SSD) which have no moving parts and have much faster read and write speeds than a normal HDD. SSDs use non-volatile memory chips and currently most use NAND-based Flash memory, retaining information even in the absence of power. These are faster, more reliable and silent in comparison with traditional HDDs, and the real downside to them is the price. As an example, a 256 GB SSD can cost close to £500 while 2 TB HDDs come for as much as £75 in 3.5" size or £115 for a 2.5" 1 TB HDD. The cost per GB is therefore much higher in the current SSD market, but the advantages are also obvious, even because SSD drives are much lighter, which makes them perfect for laptops, especially ultraportables.

As if this wasn't enough, Apple recently launched 2 new versions of its "thinner than air" MacBook Air, with a new type of SSD which consists of memory modules without the accompanying case, and therefore removing bulk and weight. Toshiba has now released these modules to the manufacturers who can start designing laptop architectures that will take advantage of this fact, and soon enough you and I will be able to order them from your "local" online store. As soon as you have a laptop/computer that is ready for them.

The Toshiba Blade X-gale SSD modules are ultrathin at 108.9 mm length, 24 mm width and 2.2 mm height (3.7 mm in the case of the 256 GB module) and weight as much as 9.8 g (13.2 g/256 GB)!!! They have all been tested and capable of read/write speeds of 220/180 MBps.