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H-HDD, which will initially be available with two cache densities, 128MB and 256MB, is said to be a next-generation drive for notebooks and PCs that integrates Nand Flash memory with traditional rotating magnetic storage.
Jon Kang, senior vice president - semiconductor division, Samsung, said that they see the H-HDD as the most advanced and cost-effective means of improving the performance of a notebook computer's storage functionality.
Kang further said that the Samsung H-HDD addresses two of the biggest consumer desires which include extended battery life and improved boot and resume performance.
The company claims that the system boots or resumes twice as fast as conventional hard disk drives, lasts 20 to 30 minutes longer when running on battery power, and is up to five times more reliable. Moreover, the system eliminates the need for the hard disk to spin constantly whenever a computer is operating on battery power, and is said to be less susceptible to damage from jarring or being dropped since it is idle most of the time.
Each time the cache is filled, the rotating drive spins to transfer data from the cache, spinning only a few seconds every ten to twenty minutes. The Samsung H-HDD architecture uses Samsung's OneNAND flash with 108MB/s read and 18 MB/s write data-rates. The functionality of the H-HDD is automated by the high performance HDD SOC which supports 3.0G Native Command Queuing SATA and an OneNAND interface.
The H-HDD saves between eight and twenty-five seconds of boot-up time, and extends laptop battery life by eight to ten per cent depending on the model of computer.
In addition, the H-HDD allows PC manufacturers to deploy value-added features such as direct media experiences with instant-boot function-altiy and accelerated processing for specified applications.
Samsung intends to test the device with customers in the next quarter, and intends to ship the product in large quantities by January 2007, just in time for the Windows Vista launch.