How small..?!

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 10:37 am

Blimey:

Main link:

http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=/ ... 9c00001d2a

!

Royston

Post by **hubird** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 10:45 am

and how do you put the disk in that die?

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 10:48 am

Real amazing...

:

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 11:31 am

are you sure that the dice is not 1 meter long?

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[ This Message was edited by: bosone on 2004-04-29 12:31 ]

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 11:58 am

is this the stuff they use in iPod mini? damn it's small. I wonder when they'll start implanting HDs in: TV remotes, cellphones, PCI boards, books (??), DV cameras (quite logical), air hockey pucks, shoes, zippo lighters, zippo lighter fluid cans, coke cans (now there's an idea!)

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 6:14 pm

You forgot about those fridge reminder-magnets

[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2004-04-29 19:14 ]

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 7:51 pm

which reminds me on those magnets the German Railway Corp used to lock small tables for the notebooks of their business travellors.

Powerful little metal beasts which were positioned right below the notebook when engaged, and happened to format more than one harddisk.
Never saw those table, but they were said to have a cool design - unlike the expression in the faces of their users...

cheers, Tom

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 3:11 am

kensuguro wrote:

I wonder when they'll start implanting HDs in: TV remotes, cellphones, PCI boards, books (??)...

Funny you should say books:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3568505.stm

Have you seen these for sale in Japan at all?

Royston

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 5:56 pm

Powerful little metal beasts which were positioned right below the notebook when engaged, and happened to format more than one harddisk.
Never saw those table, but they were said to have a cool design - unlike the expression in the faces of their users...

FRIGHTENING!!!!!

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon May 03, 2004 11:22 am

I like flash memory more.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon May 03, 2004 5:35 pm

as a hard disk replacement it is bloody slow and - unreliable (!), but it's silence is much appreciated

cheers, Tom

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon May 03, 2004 11:24 pm

And for battery life. Standard batteries are best. Check out the cost to replace an Ipod battery. Don't try this at home!

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Tue May 04, 2004 12:25 am

Funny you should say books:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3568505.stm

Have you seen these for sale in Japan at all?

Yeah, I've seen that at the electronics store.. but it seems to be more or less a "hey, look what technology can do now" type of item. You know, gadgets that look really cool and are really advanced, but no one really uses. Kinda like the Sony Aibo (dog robot).. it's cool, and you see it all over the media, but I've never seen anyone that has it.

It's also kind of sad that Sony is the first one that made use of the digital paper technology, since it's going to be bogged down with the whole Sony proprietory technology lock down. Nothing is generic with Sony, it's always got to have some sort of secret trick in it that makes an item either work best with Sony equipment or software, or can be made to not work anymore when Sony stops supporting it.

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2004-05-04 01:31 ]

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue May 04, 2004 9:56 am

But then they give up like with the consumer beta.

It is a worry that they own entertainment companies and create hardware and in some cases try to prevent copying or "Piracy". I always thought pirates were people with an eye patch and a hook for a hand.

I read the biography of Akio Morita, the father of Sony. It's hilarious to read about him trying to hand paint iron oxide on audio tape! What a long way they came in one generation and Japan too. Very industrious people.

DigiSUN · Post by **DigiSUN** » Fri May 07, 2004 3:23 am

On 2004-05-03 18:35, astroman wrote:
as a hard disk replacement it is bloody slow and - unreliable (!), but it's silence is much appreciated

cheers, Tom

Astroman, flash memory is unreliable??

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri May 07, 2004 4:08 am

don't panic - the emphasis is on as a hard disk replacement

I once used such a disk as a remedy for a noisy notebook.
While a full succes in dB, the thing produced lot of strange errors, all disk related in one or the other way, in monthly intervals.

That kind of flash disk is frequently used in embedded apps where something is booted into memory and a few values are stored, but doesn't really fit a desktop OS which constantly writes to the disk.

The memory cells do have a limited count of read/write cycles, so the firmware of this device (it was a 'real' HD replacement, not a memory card) had an internal 'remapper' that distributed access equally over the unit.

As a storage medium for images and sound the reliability of flash memory is magnitudes higher of course

cheers, Tom

DigiSUN · Post by **DigiSUN** » Fri May 07, 2004 5:10 am

Oh...

Great elaboration. Thanks!

So it seems that there are reliablility problems for heavy random-access requirements. This still brings question about reliablity of flash memory as a storage device (not as a HD replacement)... I mean at some point problems will arise, won't they? How can we be assured that the flash memory cells' life hasn't come to their end?

[ This Message was edited by: DigiSUN on 2004-05-07 06:32 ]

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri May 07, 2004 8:49 am

Each address location of flash memory has a limited number of writes before it 'wears out'.

We use flash memory a lot in our company - e.g. for holding a unix kernel image. When you write to flash, there's a funky algorithm which 'spreads' the data across the device (actually changes where the data's written) to try to maximise the device's lifetime.

Eventually, it will fail. As do HDDs. As does anything which has a beginning

The world never began, hence it's eternal!

Royston