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Is the hard drive history?
Samsung Electronics said Tuesday that it will launch two mobile computers in early June that will do away with hard drives altogether, replacing them with 32 gigabytes of NAND flash memory.
The notebooks will be the first to use flash memory as the main storage device.
The Samsung Q1, described as an “ultra-computing device,” will be complemented by the Q30, a 12.1-inch notebook PC. The retail price for the Q1-SSD will be 2.3 million Korean won, (about $2,430), while the Q30-SSD will sell for 3.5 million won (about $3,700).
Unfortunately for U.S. consumers, both will be sold in Korea only.
Magnetic rotating hard drives have typically been used inside notebooks and PCs simply because they can be manufactured more cheaply than flash memory, although the need to rotate the disc consumes more power than the solid-state flash chips.
Samsungs components division, however, is the largest manufacturer of flash memory in the world, and is already the chief supplier of the NAND flash found within the Apple iPod nano MP3 player.