Samsung displays prototypes of Hybrid Hard Disk

Tech Giant Samsung displayed a prototype of a hybrid hard disk combining a traditional hard drive with a flash disk of 128 Megs. They have developed this product along with the software giant Microsoft with the aim of reducing wear and tear of the hard disks in mobile computers by shifting the load of the processing on the flash drive from the hard drive.

The drive is aimed at the laptops powered by the upcoming Operating System from Microsoft Longhorn. The Operating System would use the flash memory for most of the active work thus putting less load on the hard disk containing the movable parts prone to going kaput. It also helps in reducing the heat and power consumption of the mobile device.

Samsung claimed that Hard Drives are the most common part to get defected with the passage of time and this technology would help prevent that. A representative of the company said: “The failing item in a returned notebook is typically the hard disk. If we keep that drive spun down, we believe that will have a huge impact.”

The company plans to mass-produce the disk as and when Longhorn makes an entry in the retail market, which is expected to happen sometime next year. The drives are expected to be a tad more expensive than regular drives. However, the company claims that the reduction in power consumption and maintenance cost would make up for that.