Why is flash memory not more widely used in PCs?

Avoriaz

Non volatile memory such as Flash memory is widely used in USB pen drives, mp3 players etc and is now quite cheap per gb.

It is not as fast as RAM but it is a lot faster than a disk.

Why is it not more widely used in laptops and desktops?

Even with a fresh and clean Windows install it takes a while for a laptop or desktop to boot up and load programmes.

If it had say, 10gb flash memory for XP etc, it could boot in a few seconds and load applications almost instantly.

My laptop has a 250gb hard disk and 2gb RAM. It takes 40 to 60 seconds or so to boot from cold.

If it also had 10gb of flash memory holding XP etc, it would boot in a fraction of the time and loads applications much faster.

The disk could also hold a mirrored copy of XP etc just in case the flash memory fails or gets corrupted.

I don’t have a problem with my laptop so I don’t need suggestions to improve it. I’m just curious why flash memory isn’t widely used.

Is it due to unreliability of flash memory, or shortages of flash memory or another reason?

Or is it being used and I just don’t know about it?

aliEnRIK

Its expensive and the cheaper ones are VERY unreliable
But in the future, itll take off big time

BillScarab

It's starting to be ued more as the cost falls. Some netboks use flash memory. There are also solid state 'discs' around now but they're still relatively pricey. There's a selection at ebuyer

I must admit the 30gb one for £77 does look good for a drive to just hold your OS. They've also come down a lot since I last looked. I would't trust data to them but for the OS they are tempting.

timbim_2

SSD's are increasing in popularity among gamers. They're the ones who drive market changes.

Marty_J

Apple have a 128 GB SSD in their MacBook Air.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw SSDs appearing on more Apple products in the future.

PROLIANT

Flash memory still is in its infancy, it is limited to how many reads/writes it is capable of performing before it will fail,
still, steps forward everyday.

Marty_J

PROLIANT wrote: »

Flash memory still is in its infancy, it is limited to how many reads/writes it is capable of performing before it will fail,

Isn't a HDD?

They don't last forever, AFAIK.

PROLIANT

Marty_J wrote: »

Isn't a HDD?

They don't last forever, AFAIK.

Yes, but Flash is still undergoing heavy R&D, it will prevail over HDD technology eventually, client-side first as SA-SCSI is still faster so unless the engineers can better SCSI with flash I don't see Server technology having much to do with Flash just yet.

Little_John

The main reason is cost compare the cost of a 60GB SSD (£120) to the price of a normally 60/80GB hard drive about £25.

Back in the days when I spent money on my PC as it want out of fashion I had a £600+ a month habit and that was buying at proper trade prices not the so called computer show trade prices I wouldn't have flinched at £120 for a hard drive. to prove the point I had a clear out earlier and found the receipt for one of the 2.5GB hard drives I bought £167, £67 for 16mb of memory. I have a pile of SCSI drives that I replaced with larger faster drives over the years 9.1GB drives 36GB drives 74Gb for £180 147GB drives cost me nearly £400. each time a larger capacity came out the smaller drives became cheaper but the biggest drive was always about £400.

So what was said above that gamers do have an effect it is true, as gamers and enthusiast buy them the prices come down slight but not because more people are buying them but because the technology is developed and the next improvement is available and that will still cost top price the older ones will drop to a more affordable level.

BillScarab

But if you compare the cost of a SSD against a velociraptor which has similar access times they're pretty similar these days. I must admit until I looked today I didn't realise how affordable they were becoming.

Marty_J

BillScarab wrote: »

But if you compare the cost of a SSD against a velociraptor which has similar access times they're pretty similar these days. I must admit until I looked today I didn't realise how affordable they were becoming.

What have dinosaurs got to do with it?