At the Flash Memory Summit Toshiba demonstrated their hybrid harddisk drive, joining Seagate as a provider of these storage devices that can provide performance similar to that of SSD with the storage costs closer to that of harddisk drives.
To achieve equal performance on a write IOPS basis utilizing harddisk drives would require over 400 drives, 36U of rack space and consume more than 300 times the power.
One of the main challenges in reducing the thickness of current 7mm harddisk drives by almost 30% without compromising on its performance and stability is its spindle motor design.
Although in decline over the last year or so notebook computer makers appear to be poised to offer thin and light weight, reasonably priced products that provide performance and power use like those of flash memory devices with the storage costs of harddisk drives.
Boasting solid state drive (SSD) like speed and harddisk drive capacity, the new Seagate Laptop and Laptop Thin SSHDs are the most affordable way to increase your laptop performance.