Laptop Sees Era of Terabytes
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
With steadily soaring transactions being applied to e-commerce and cyber transaction processing such as Internet banking, real-time billing and electronic trading, it seems natural for companies to look to solid-state disk (SSD) storage systems on a terabyte-scale for fast access and data manipulation of large databases.
Rather, it is too early to say that there will be an early proliferation of terabyte-level laptops to store shelves because of high prices and complicated functions, although power consumption and robustness are striking two factors that might affect industry-wide adoption and specific market penetration.
One terabyte equals 1,024 gigabytes. A gigabyte is 1 billion bytes.
But many manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics and Japan’s Hitachi have been accelerating efforts to introduce laptops with one terabyte storage capacity as a ``litmus test’’ inspired by growing appetites among ``early-adopters’’ of pricey products.
``Cost prevents the widespread replacement of the venerable disk drive technology by solid-state disks. However, I can say that the time will come for us to say goodbye to an era where a few hundred gigabytes of storage is considered adequate for desktops and laptops,’’ said an official from Samsung Electronics, Monday.
``SSD-based architectures array themselves to use substantially less power for today’s `green world,’ as well as allow for server consolidation,’’ the official added.
Samsung has already been shipping 500 gigabyte hard drives. The combination of two units allows a laptop one terabyte storage space, which makes it possible to store 125 hours of DVD movies or 60 hours of high-definition video images.
Samsung says its $299 2.5 inch ``Spinpoint M6’’ hard drive mainly targets users who want high-density mobile applications.
Taiwanese laptop maker Asus was also able to offer one terabyte by attaching two units of Hitachi’s mobile hard disk drive dubbed ``Travelstar 5K500’’ in the 2.5 inch, fitted for portable PCs.
Even Hitachi plans to release an enhanced terabyte laptop specially tailored for use in home digital video recorders, according to industry sources.
``Terabyte-level laptops will provide distinctive functions to premium seekers, however, the products will slowly come to consumers,’’ an official from LG Electronics said.