Tech Shout!

Samsung announced that it has started shipping its first hybrid hard drive ‘MH80 series’ to select OEMs from Wednesday onwards, and added that retail shipments would begin “soon”.

The latest MH80 2.5-inch hybrid hard drives (HHD) for notebook PCs will be available in 80GB, 120GB, and 160GB capacities, with either 128MB or 256MB of onboard flash memory, for caching purposes. It combines a hard disk drive with OneNand flash cache and Microsoft’s ReadyDrive software, offering faster boot and resume times, along with enhanced battery life and greater reliability as compared to traditional magnetic media technology. However since software support for ReadyDrive exists in Windows Vista only, PCs running other operating systems won’t benefit from the technology.

Albert Kim, National Sales Manager of Storage Systems for Samsung Semiconductor, said, “As a leader in both hard drive (HD) and flash memory technologies, Samsung brings to market a unique HHD that is sure to revolutionize the notebook computing experience. The MH80 HDD provides an ideal solution for two major issues that notebook PC users continually face: faster boot and resume performance, and extended battery life.”

According to Samsung, the MH80 HHD drive preserves high densities of magnetic storage technology, while the advanced Nand flash technology enhances the overall value with lowered power consumption, higher reliability, and faster read/write access than traditional HD.

The MH80 features Samsung’s ReadyBoot technology that offers up to a 50 percent reduction in boot and resume times from traditional magnetic media technology. In addition, the drive consumes 70-90 percent less power than traditional HD, which results in extended battery life by 30 minutes.

In addition, the MH80 also offers up to five times the reliability of traditional notebook PC HD. Moreover, as the drive’s platters are idle 99 percent of the time, the MH80 eliminates the need for the HD to constantly spin whenever a PC is operating on battery power. As a result, the drive is much less susceptible to shock damage.

Furthermore, the drive operates at a lower temperature than regular HD, reducing the likelihood of damage and hard drive failure.

Although Microsoft has touted flash drives as a means to improve the performance of its Vista operating system, there are two types of flash drives. The first, more common form is known as ReadyBoost, where a specially formatted USB flash drive stores Windows system files, making boot cycles and restores from hibernation faster and more efficient.