Monday, November 3, 2008

Hard Drives Are Dead The Coming Revolution In Personal Computing

Writen by Michael Quarles

There is a revolution on the way, the biggest since hard drives were added to PCs. In short, the hard drive as we know it will be eliminated in favor of a new system based on flash memory.

Hard drives have had many shortcomings. They're mechanical, depending on a disk spinning at 7200 rpm. A good, hard bump while a disk is in operation can destroy data and damage the drive itself. Ask anyone who has dropped a laptop what part of the computer had to be fixed. You might think the screen, but in the majority of cases you'd be wrong. The hard drive is the most often damaged component in such an accident.

With the new system, there'll be nothing mechanical to damage or fail. Prices should be competitive, as manufacturers are ramping up production capacity, which will bring costs down.

You may wonder how long it will be until these new drives are on the market. As we all know from personal experience, improvements in computer technology tend to come sooner than we expect, rather than later. My prediction is that within 2 years virtually all computers will be built with the new system.

Even that may be too distant a time frame. I well remember yearing to edit video online, but reading in articles that the machine I required was at least five years in the future.

Of course, within 6 months, I had one, and at a bargain price as well.

Michael Quarles website is http://www.monkeyseemonkeydobooks.com.

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