
Currently, both Microsoft as well as the hard drive makers are working on integrating a limited amount of flash memory into future-generation drives. This flash memory could serve several purposes, including power savings when hard drive data is not required, quicker boot times by reading operating system data out of the quick flash memory or even performance enhancements. Flash enabled hard drives certainly are the future, but they have nothing to do with Intel's latest approach to sell more chips.
Robson will serve as an add-on component to help speed up the process of booting Windows. Currently, Intel is talking about 256 MB, but depending on flash prices, that could easily end up being 1 or 2 GB. While Windows PCs will certainly benefit quite a bit, flash cannot replace conventional hard drives any time soon because of its capacity constraints. However, small form factor solutions could definitely be powered by multi-gigabyte flash storage solutions rather than hard drives.
- IDF Spring 2006: The Core Of Intel 3.0
- Intel's Energy Awakening
- Quad Cores In Multi-Chip Packages By 2007
- Core To The Rescue
- Wide Dynamic Execution
- Advanced Digital Media Boost
- Advanced Smart Cache
- Smart Memory Access
- Memory Disambiguation
- Intelligent Power Capability
- The Memory Controller Question
- There Is More To Save
- The Server Challenge
- Mashups To Drive Mobility
- Robson NAND Flash Or Hybrid Hard Drives?
- UMPC
- Conclusion