Loading ...ioDrive: 640 GB flash card almost at the speed of DRAM - The end of hard drives?
By Michael Pietroforte | 30 Comments | Permalink | Trackback | Previous | Next
I think, the idea behind ioDrive is this: Use your computer like a TV. That is, forget about boot time, launch channels (applications) without any delay and don’t worry about data loss if someone pulls the power plug. Sounds like Science Fiction? If you believe in the announcement of the Utah-based start-up company, Fusion-io, this could already come true at the beginning of next year.
These are the most interesting specs of ioDrive from their FAQ:
- “io” stands for “indexed object memory”
- ioDrive is based on NAND technology
- Data rates: 800 MB/sec (read), 600 MB/sec (write). [SATA hard drives support up to 90 MB/s, and PC2-6400 DRAM 6.4GB/s]
- Fusion-io will offer ioDrives in the following capacities: 80GB, 160GB, 320GB and 640GB.
- ioDrive uses a PCI x4 connector
- Retail prices will be about $30 per GB
This is 100 times more than the current price of hard disk space. However, it is normal for new technology to be overpriced. I think if storage media like this become available for a reasonable price, they could revolutionize computer technology as such. I am sure that this would lead to operating systems (client and server) fatter than ever before.
Leave a Comment | 
Subscribe RSS
| 
Newsletter
this is what alot of us pc geeks have been waiting for. extremely fast read times and a ton of space. although it begs the question of piracy, with all this storage, it give people alot more space to download whole movies and music.
i guess we’ll wait and see
Sounds good. I want one… or two;)
But, I think, there are only few people who are ready to get it fo 30$/GB(that 80GB one - it will cost 2400$? Something like a new data storage server equipped with 1TB or more…)… So - that’s good idea, but the realisation’s not so.
All this storage? 640GB is nothing considering what they’re charging; but it’s not about space with this drive. A modern SATA hard drive will hold not far off twice what this one does, but this one can access the data many hundreds of times faster than a regular hard drive.
Heh yeah if you’re going to drop nearly 20 grand for 640gb, I don’t think you’re the type of person that goes around downloading pirated software. If/when the price does drop though, this is an awesome concept.
I don’t see the average consumer getting in line for a $2400 80 gig drive.
I do however see a company that does video editing might want something like that.
It’d be nice, but I just don’t see it happening.
It’s not about the space on the drive, the best thing you could do is use ioDrive on your first drive and have a second.
Awesome.
Been waiting for this, give it 2 years.
(I’ve 3 drives on my machine, btw.)
[...] 4sysops - ioDrive: 640 GB flash card almost at the speed of DRAM - The end of hard drives? - “io” stands for “indexed object memory” - ioDrive is based on NAND technology - Data [...]
[...] 4sysops - ioDrive: 640 GB flash card almost at the speed of DRAM - The end of hard drives? - “io” stands for “indexed object memory” - ioDrive is based on NAND technology - Data [...]
This isn’t all that extraordinary. More like the natural evolution of storage. Moving parts to be eliminated in favour of solid state. You can already buy flash Hard drives for much less, though they are nowhere near as fast.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they start making solid state drives in the mid 90’s? It was a big deal when the first RAM drives came onto the market but no one ended up buying them because the price was far too high. (The version I tested ran at incredible speeds but eventually failed due to over heating.) Aside from servers, gaming companies, and software editors… who really needs a 600+ gb drive that runs at near DRAM speeds? So long as your system has plenty of memory, you are better off with a TB or two in regular drives. Atleast until the price comes down and the hardware is proven.
Some gaming computer (i don’t know which company) has the idea. Use a small flash hd for the operating system, some often used applications and for virtual memory. then use 1 TB of normal HD space for the rest of your storage.
The only reason it’s so expensive is because mass production has not started, as it would be pointless because there are still improvements to be made.
I’m wondering about power consumption. Might this be a boon for Laptops/Handhelds (once the price goes down, of course)?
I highly doubt that will be the end of HDs. With the ability to purchase 500GB HDD space at $100 or less, paying $2400 for 80GB is not something most consumers would be willing to do.
In the beginning, we will only need a 15 GB drive for OS, and use a standard HD for storage. But much like VHS, the new media will eventually become incredibly cheaper.
Nice article but, that is nowhere near DRAM speeds considering DDR3 is now released.
easybutton, you’re right if you compare it with the latest developments in DRAM technology. However, ioDrive is fast enough to replace RAM in some areas.
A wast of time for now its a rip off right now its about 5 USD for 1 gig
this would be great for video editors…
but starting at nearly $2400 a HD is going to be intresting
[...] http://4sysops.com/archives/iodrive-…f-hard-drives/ $30 per Gbyte. Uses PCI 4X slot. Read a review of the G33M-DSR motherboard complaining about the PCI 4X slot, they said it should have been another PCI express, sinse "nothing uses the 4X". Looks like those 4X slot motherboards are going to be pure gold. For as much effort as people put into faster boot times, etc… (Raptors & RAID 0’s, etc…) I have the feeling that these are going to be the newest and coolest toy out there. Boot times of 3 seconds ? Lessee 40 Gbytes times $30 equals uh… (takes off shoes & socks) "…9, 10, 11, 12." $1,200 Think I’ll wait a few months until the price comes down. __________________ Here lies a toppled God, His fall was not a small one We did but build a pedestal, A narrow, but a tall one. Introduction to nLite Forum Ettiquette [...]
hmm, see some people think this would be great for video editing, but lol, at the price i think most video editors couldnt give a …
set up a nice scsi or sata 2 raid and a nice enough pc, decent software and hd editing is fast enough for now, god, just shooting an advert in hd, your talking about 200gig for enough footage :P, sometimes more, we have big stacks of normal sata hdds just cause its the cheapest way to keep projects, so no, I dont think this will revolutionise video editing, lol.. maybe in actual film companies, but even then i think they will prefer theyr 10tb storage arrays :), having said all that though, the 80gig one would make a damn nice hdd to use for a swap file since vista ultimate 64 doesnt seem to like using more than 2gigs of ram, and xp is 3.1 or so, think i will stick with 32/64 gig solid state flash hdds for now though 
I dont think this will sell well most companys like ocz and others will develop the same thing but actuly stay with the real flash prices unlike this company 30 bucks is outragous for flash thats now someware like 5-7 for a gig.
Any 64 bit Vista will handle 4 gb of ram, as long as the chipset can as well (no notebook that I know of). The 32 bit versions max out at 3gb.
I do not believe this
This would be excellent for sample based audio recording. With sample libraries being 200GB+ for a 24bit orchestra or a piano collection, 800MB/s read means that there will be very little latency, even with hundreds of sample streams at once.
Such speeds far exceed SATA II and do approach RAM. I foresee that it is not too far away that computers will dispense with DRAM (and all its timing rubbish) and storage as we know it today, so that computers can just be switched off without loss, and switched on instantly. Imagine the computer being able to access all the storage as RAM. Installation would basically become loading up and leaving permanently installed AND RUNNING. That would mean a rethink of how programs are designed.
So much of the discussion about configuring computers would just go out the window. Already, the advent of SSDs means that defragmentation is unnecessary. And there is no need to use the start of hard drives for the most time-critical data, because there is not track-to-track seek times. This is not the future, but is the now, and it will only be getting more radical in the seachange.
Vava la revolution!
HI THERE WOW A WHOPPING 640 GB SSD FOR $30.00 PER GB THATS IS ESPANSIVE WHILL I SEE THAT FRYS WEBSITE HAS A 128 GB SSD DRIVE FOR $369.99 AND PEPOLE SAY THATS ESPANSIVE TOO AND YOU CAN FIND A 32 GB SSD FOR $90 OR $97 SO LETS TAKE THE 640 GB SSD FOR $30.00 PER GB THAT SHOULD COME OUT AT A WHOPPING $19,200.00 THATS WHY NO BODY HAS MASS MARKET SSD EVEN HARD CORE GAMERS HAVE A HARD SELL FOR $2,000 FOR A REALY FAST DRIVE I TRY TOO KEEP FINDING WAYS TOO MASS MARTET SOLID STATE DRIVES AND A 80 GB WILL RUN $2,400 THATS 10 TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE THEN REGULAR SSD DRIVES
OH YOU CAN GET 10 64 GB SSD FROM FRYS AT $214 TO $255 SOO YOUR CAN HAVE 640 GB FOR ONLY $2140 TOO $2550 IF YOU WANT CHEAP HIGH STORAGE SSD SOLID STATE DRIVES.
This technology was developed for servers, and is about IOPS (100,000+, actually) and speed (500-700 MBps), not size. This is a great solution for servers with thousands of connections at any given time.
However, let’s consider the niche market of extreme performance gaming PCs. You can install one of these cards and get 80GB of drive space at 600 MBps at the expense of $2400 and a free PCIe slot; or, you can RAID-0 three SLC SSDs and get ~200GB of drive space at 200 MBps for around $2000, while leaving your PCIe slot free (and having a sizeable chunk of left-over cash) for, say, another graphics card.
So at what point does the drive speed - and let’s make no mistake about it, this is about speed - become the bottleneck? Only when you’re loading directly into memory: the OS, a game level, maybe video editing, not much else. Even doing full system backups, you’d be limited by the speed of the device you’re tranferring to.
As amazing as the ioDrive sounds, I think I’d just wait the extra few seconds for my computer to boot or my level to load and install 2-3 times as much [albeit, slightly slower] storage and an extra graphics card for around the same price.
Your thoughts?