Flash memory technology is still attractive despite many limitations

The emergence of flash memory in ultra-light and ultra-small computers like the Apple MacBook Air and Asus Eee PC makes users believe it will soon replace the hard drive.

SSD hard drive storage price is quite high. It is the reason that the MacBook Air version of 3,089 USD is 1,300 USD higher than the model with hard drive (1,799 USD).

In addition, the flash drive is limited to the number of recording cycles, so it will no longer be usable after hundreds of thousands of recordings. This problem still exists in SSDs of newer notebooks like the MacBook Air.

However, the ability to save battery, radiate less heat and especially high speed operation is still an attractive advantage many users. The 1.8-inch SanDisk SSD version has a read speed of 66 Mbps.

SanDisk does not mention prices, but in the future, when large-capacity SSDs appear more and more on the market, their prices will have to be reduced. Currently, an 8 GB flash card of this company is 80 USD while in 2004, 1 GB card costs . 500 USD.

Khandker N. Quader, deputy director of SanDisk's flash design division, said they will apply X3 technology, ie 3 bits / memory instead of the previous 2 bits, this year.

In addition, SanDisk and Toshiba are also beginning to produce flash cards based on 43 nanometer technology, so SSDs released at the end of 2008 will have storage capacities between 120 GB and 160 GB.