Solid-state Storage

It’s the year 2011 — another year and the end of the world will come — and they still haven’t made solid-state storage the norm on laptops or even ultra-portables and netbooks, two specific subcategories of the laptop which would benefit the most from the space and weight-saving designs resulting as a consequence of the adoption of solid-state storage.  What in the Dickens is the matter with our technology companies?

In fact, a variety of factors are to be blamed if any blame should be assigned at all.  At Carnegie Digital Computers of New York City, we are bullish on solid-state storage and carry the best selection of computers employing the technology, but even we can feel some sympathy for manufacturers who are often simply reacting to market pressures, of which there exist many more beyond that of consumer demand — speaking of which, isn’t quite anywhere near as bullish as we are for the stuff.

Solid-state storage is already familiar to most people (those who know a little more than simply how to turn a device on and off) who use smartphones and other portable personal electronics.  Instead of using spinning platters, which is what a hard drive is, after all, the most modern devices utilize memory chips to store all the data — solid-state storage (“solid” because there are no moving parts).  Solid-state storage is much smaller and much lighter than a hard disk.  It’s ideal for ultra-portables and netbooks.  But the truth is, most folks are just fine with existing technology.  The space and weight savings, while welcome, are not valuable enough to warrant the extra several hundred dollars they would cost.

Moreover, the standard solid-state storage capacities on offer when available tend to lag far behind that found on hard disks.  64GB is standard for most solid-state offerings.  Much rarer is a 128GB configuration, and rarer still — to the point of mythical — is 512GB.  Finally, standard solid-state offerings can actually be slower than conventional hard disk!  A blazing-fast 512GB configuration is hard to come by — financially and otherwise.