Write caching could allow the hard disk drive to stay in a lower power non-spinning state for longer periods of time, extending battery life for the notebook computer.

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The lower density means dramatically less drag force acting on the spinning disk stack so that mechanical power into the motor is substantially reduced.

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Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant sustained its worst power outage since a blackout in 2011 sent its reactors spinning out of control.

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Utilities need as much as 1 megawatt of spinning reserves for every 2 megawatts of wind power, says Douglas Houseman with CapGemini, a Paris consultancy.

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Additionally, due to their inherent advantages over traditional spinning hard drives, including better performance, lower power consumption, and increased reliability, drives made from solid state flash products should continue to gain in popularity as prices fall and capacities rise.

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Solid-state storage and memory technologies in general use less power than hard disk drives when they are active, and thus there can be power savings if some solid-state storage and memory can be used in a mixed storage technology environment in a way that reduces the spinning time of hard disk drives and thus decreases the power needs of a storage system.

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That marathon battery life is made possible in part by the slow-spinning 4, 200 rpm 30GB hard drive and low-power (in more ways than one) Core Solo U1300 processor, running at a sprightly 1.06GHz.

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