Saturday, January 3, 2015

HD and external hard drives: technology moves towards the end? – Globo.com

From the first personal computer, even in the 1980s, hard drives, which we call HD, are responsible for data storage. But technology advances and today, SSDs are an option for those who want a computer with great performance.

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The same logic applies to the external hard drives. Over time, flash drives, which are nothing more than portable SSDs, gain more power and may end up fighting for space with conventional hard drives.

These two technologies coexist in the market for some years . Hitherto, SSDs have not been able to make impracticable drives. But technology continues to evolve and the prospect of more attractive prices can change that.

Among the reasons for magnetic hard drives have not been retired, are the two technologies prices and some limitations present in SSDs that make this still restricted and distant settlement of the use of many reality.

What is hard?

hard drives are devices made up of an electronic board that houses the drivers, who are responsible for operation of the device, and the hard disk itself: one, or more, covered discs of a layer of magnetic material, responsible for keep the recorded and available data for writing

Advantages:. the technology of recording information magnetically is very old, which means that there is a very widespread dominion over it everywhere (is the principle of the old cassette tapes). This also means that the cost of the materials involved is low, which ensures the most competitive prices on the market and the development of capacity hard drives with capacities up to 4TB. Another HD advantage is that if he does not suffer damage, you can erase and write data for decades

Disadvantages:. There are two major problems when it comes to hard drives. First, they are not as fast, at least when it comes to very demanding uses in terms of processing. The second problem is that they are not reliable: a simple bump can disable an HD, something quite common with external hard drives and laptops. These two limitations have their origin in engineering behind the HD: it depends on the motor and moving parts which wear out and are subject to physical problems, in most cases, irretrievable. Another point of disadvantage is the high energy consumption and high heat dissipation when operating in intensity.

What is an SSD?

SSD is an acronym of the English, for solid state disk. In general, the SSD is like a big stick: he keeps files on silicon chips, as well as an SD card or USB stick common. This makes a high-speed SSD drive and greater reliability. The problem here is the cost

Advantages:. The fact that there is no moving parts inside an SSD makes them more reliable. There are reports cards and USB sticks, which were submerged in the ocean, be legible even after the sea water action. Another advantage of SSD is that it offers much higher speeds than HD: while the magnetic hard disk needs a motor to rotate and a read head that reads and writes to disk, SSD offers almost immediate data, as the information is recorded electronically into chips. Compared to common HD, the SSD consumes less energy and does not heat up much, which allows the performance curve does not suffer concussions due to the heat dissipation

Disadvantages:. Produce a chip is an absurdly complex process. The technology needed for this is dominated by a few companies in the world and this is indicative of what is the major drawback of SSDs today: the price. In comparison, an HD 1TB can be purchased for $ 200. A SSD of the same capacity for $ 1500. A current disadvantage of SSD technology is called persistence of data. With prolonged use, at some point, SSD will retain data in the memory sectors that can not be erased.

hard drives will be replaced?

Technologies override each other and the future for hard drives will only be darker when the prices of SSDs fall. Until then, the so-called cost per GB is still unbeatable for most users, who need discs to store data. Seagate, for example, has just announced an HD 8 TB for $ 260 (£ 678, in direct conversion). Eight 1TB SSDs would cost much more than 10 times that amount.

At the same time, Samsung brings to market the new Evo 850, which makes use of 3D chip technology. Samsung is so confident in the new technology that sells the device with five-year warranty. The question, as always, is the price:. Pro version, with 10 year warranty, costs $ 650 (R $ 1,691 in direct conversion)

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But that does not mean that SSDs are the best possible solution. The technology continues to progress and new research around data storage solutions, soon, can change everything.

There are promising lines of research for the development of holographic storage media. IBM recently released information on the development of a type of memory called the Racetrack, using the guidance of small magnets to hold information and have the ability to overcome at 100 times the storage power of hard drives without the use of parts mechanical and guaranteed to be used indefinitely.

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