

Toshiba Introduces MacBook Air 'Blade-Type' SSDs to Mass Market - there
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/08/toshiba-introduces-macbook-air-blade-type-ssds-to-mass-market/

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teilo
That is awesome. It is an utter waste of space to put SSD's into a 3.5 or 2.5"
hard drive case.

This also opens up the door for some very compact PCs. Rather than having
flash memory soldered onto the motherboard, I would like to see slots on
regular PC motherboards for this.

Lots of questions: Is this some standardized connector, or has Toshiba created
a defacto standard? Is this just an alternate SATA plug, or is the SATA
daughter controller integrated onto the motherboard itself?

Edit: It's just standard mSATA. Controller on each drive. From the horse's
mouth:
[http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2010_11/pr0801.htm?from...](http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2010_11/pr0801.htm?from=RSS_PRESS&uid=20101108-1204e)

mSATA is a standard: <http://gizmodo.com/5364485/msata-its-like-sata-but-
smaller>

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jacquesm
Putting an SSD in to a 3.5 or 2.5" hard drive enclosure is indeed a waste of
space, but talking 'mSATA' to what is essentially memory seems to be a waste
of speed.

All that work to stuff data down a serial pipe emulating a harddisk that isn't
even there.

~~~
AngryParsley
Flash has certain disadvantages that favor using a controller instead of
direct addressing like DRAM. To make SSDs fast, you have to do wear leveling,
command queueing, and parallelization of requests across all flash chips. Oh
and when a cell fails, you have to remap spare cells. Doing this stuff in
software would be a giant pain.

You can get raw flash chips, but it's hard to get decent performance and
reliability out of them. That sort of setup is usually for embedded systems
where writing is rare and read performance isn't important. Firmwares for
switches and routers, for example.

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Hoff
While I understand your comments and that this can get hairy, also consider a
softmodem-like implementation as a counter-example.

A softmodem (variously also called a Winmodem) is a partial or full software
implementation of a modem, and helped reduce the parts counts and the costs of
modems.

Ugly or not, it's a near certainty that we'll see a software (or firmware)
implementation of this; some sort of "softssd" or "winssd" scheme.

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qjz
I've been expecting this from the moment I first saw an exploded view of an
SSD. I understood the case allowed for the SSD to be used as a replacement
drive, but figured it was only a matter of time before they'd be installed in
slots on the motherboard. Next prediction: RAM/SSD soldered right onto the
motherboard. [Yes, I realize I'm stating the obvious.]

~~~
pmjordan
Hate to steal Apple's thunder, but the first _eeePC_ (of all things!) was, I
think, the first to do this, and many non-HDD netbooks now use this design.
The MBA ones just seem to be longer, allowing more flash chips. Previous
examples not only have cribbed the mini PCIe's connector but also the entire
form factor (5cm or 7cm long), despite not using the PCIe protocol.
Interestingly, the MBA still seems to use the PCIe connector, just the form
factor has changed.

So far the various netbook designs are electrically incompatible. I don't know
where the MBA one fits into all this.

EDIT: looks like they standardised the interface as "mSATA" back in June.

~~~
catch23
Hate to steal EeePC's thunder, but this has been done in embedded PCs on mini-
itx form factor computers since flash storage was available, pre-sata
connectors. It looked like a 1-inch nub that fits in the IDE connector. It was
perfect for embedded PCs since power requirements were always very low for
flash memory and an easy way to save a watt.

~~~
pmjordan
Indeed, but weren't/aren't those typically encased in a plastic housing, not
unlike CompactFlash cards?

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sadiq
Anyone know how the Toshiba controllers on these and the MBAs perform,
relative to the Intel and recent Sandforce controllers?

~~~
neolefty
Anand does some performance tests:

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/3991/apples-2010-macbook-
air-1...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/3991/apples-2010-macbook-
air-11-13inch-reviewed/4)

summary: pretty good!

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rythie
I'm wondering when we'll see servers with hot swap versions of these.

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bhiggins
Need more? See: <http://www.fusionio.com/products/ioxtreme/>

Even more than that? OK, how about: <http://www.violin-
memory.com/technology/capacity-flash/>

