Solid State Memory

[mccordia 74]

This news is not that new/hot anymore, but I think its another good step forward. With Solid State Memory in more and more applications the focus on development, and eventually getting the price down, means we may start to finaly see more affordable HD(V) camera's, shooting to flash memory. So no moving parts in our camera's anymore...which means smaller/lighter cameras, and possibly more energy efficient as well (changing batteries less often;)

Samsung Electronics announced at the Mobile Solution Forum that it has begun offering a 32-Gigabyte NAND flash-based solid state disk (SSD) for mobile computing applications.

The 32GB Flash-SSD, which serves the same purpose as a hard disk drive. It uses instantly-accessible, non-moving NAND flash memory instead of the rotating discs found in hard drives; therefore can upload and download data quickly and quietly with minimal power consumption.

The Flash-SSD weighs only half as much as a comparably-sized hard drive, but reads data three times faster and writes data 1.5 times faster. For instance, a 1.8" type SDD reads at 57Mbps, while a 1.8" hard disk drive reads at approximately 15Mbps.

The SSD uses just five percent of the electricity needed to power a hard disc drive and is noiseless. Its design is free of any motor or other mechanical parts.

Samsung showcased its 32 SDD at the CeBIT some days ago. The solid-state disk was demonstrated inside a Samsung laptop computer. The desktop appeared on the screen of the SSD laptop in about 18 seconds while the hard-drive-based computer took about 31 seconds to reach the same point.

However, the major hurdle that needs to be overcome before SSD can reach mass market is price. Flash memory costs around $30 per gigabyte; the memory needed for the 32GB SSD drive works out to about $960, before any other costs are taken into account.

Samsung thinks there are some military or industrial customers that have specialist applications that would benefit from the SSD and so might be more willing to pay a premium.

Prices for flash memory are expected to come down. In May last year, when Samsung first announced the technology, the flash memory price was about $55 per gigabyte. So it might just be a matter of time before such disks hit the mass market.

Samsung sees the overall global SSD market surging from US$540 million in 2006 to US$4.5 billion by 2010.

The company did not disclose any details about the commercialization of its Flash-SSD in the mass mobile PC market.

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[quade 4]

Oh it's all coming together, will just be a few more years. It has already his the broadcast market and prices are in the $50,000ish range, but that will all come down to consumer level soon enough.

Until then, here's a glimpse at the current broadcast product.

CLICK

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[DSE 5]

Or there is this one for 8K. Started shipping last week.
There will be a couple others announced shortly.
FWIW, I'm not at all a big fan of P2, which is the storage format of the camera that Quade linked to, but it was the first general market format using solid state.
AVCHD, though highly compressed by comparison, is also available in all solid state. Cards went from 300.00 to 100.00 almost overnight in the 8 gig variety. We'll see 8 gig cards in the 60-80.00 range come holiday season.
I'm excited for tandems with these, because I can have 3-4 cards, shoot, load one to dump while I'm hotloading the next person, and it'll dump the last tandem in about 2 mins, so it's empty when I hit ground.
Solid state is the future of this level of the sport in the *very* near future, and eventually will be so for all camera acquisition, IMO.