Sam Oliver
The high-speed NAND flash memory is said to appear in Apple's new MacBook Air, rumored to see an imminent release, according to Macotokara. Citing a person with an "Asian electronics component company," the report said that the new technology will replace the Blade X-gale found in the current MacBook Air models.
The new 19-nanometer flash memory is said to be packaged on a smaller chip, and will be soldered onto the base circuit of the new thin-and-light notebook directly.
The report noted that the Open NAND Flash Interface Working Group, which standardizes NAND flash, has released the ONFi 3.0 specification for 400MBps speeds, but most memory processing companies do not yet offer compatible chips. It said that "Toggle DDR 2.0," which is a standardized procedure from the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, is believed to have been embraced by Apple.
Apple's MacBook Air was made thinner and lighter with a new model released last October that features instant-on capabilities with no hard drive and no optical drive. The ultraportable notebook sports only NAND flash memory for storage.
That storage was initially provided by Toshiba, but later changed to Samsung. The change allowed for read times to be upgraded to 261.1MBps, from 209.8Mbps, while write times were boosted to 209MBps from 175.6MBps.
Rather than relying on traditional 2.5-inch or 1.8-inch SSDs, the new MacBook Air drives utilize a new form factor known as mSATA. After the thinner and lighter MacBook Air was unveiled last year, Toshiba announced its Blade X-gale SSD series, the same hardware found in Apple's thin-and-light notebook.
Apple is said to have built nearly 400,000 of its next-generation MacBook Air last month in preparation for a launch that is expected to occur soon. The anticipated new notebooks are believed to feature Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors, as well as the new high-speed Thunderbolt port.
While new MacBook Air hardware is expected to launch soon, it will not debut until Apple's next-generation operating system is released. AppleInsider was first to report last month that Apple would freeze the introductions of new Mac hardware until Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is released. The "Golden Master" of Lion was released to developers last week.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
100 Comments
If this memory is soldered directly, does this mean that when it fails one either spends a lot of money to repair the unit or throw it out to buy another one?
Not sure what the expected lifespan of this tech would be but if we're talking two or three years, it's unacceptable to have a $1,000 device that would basically have a three-year lifespan. Not sure about others but I can't afford to drop $1,000+ into a new machine every couple of years.
I can see this sort of scenario playing out with a $300 iPod but not a $1,000 MacBook.
If this memory is soldered directly, does this mean that when it fails one either spends a lot of money to repair the unit or throw it out to buy another one?
Not sure what the expected lifespan of this tech would be but if we're talking two or three years, it's unacceptable to have a $1,000 device that would basically have a three-year lifespan. Not sure about others but I can't afford to drop $1,000+ into a new machine every couple of years.
I can see this sort of scenario playing out with a $300 iPod but not a $1,000 MacBook.
Not sure for this specific technology but SSD's in general are very reliable and have a lifespan of 10+ years
Bottom line, a normal hard drive will fail sooner then an SSDWonder if this means there will be higher capacity options available? Like a 512GB air...
If this memory is soldered directly, does this mean that when it fails one either spends a lot of money to repair the unit or throw it out to buy another one?
Not sure what the expected lifespan of this tech would be but if we're talking two or three years, it's unacceptable to have a $1,000 device that would basically have a three-year lifespan. Not sure about others but I can't afford to drop $1,000+ into a new machine every couple of years.
I can see this sort of scenario playing out with a $300 iPod but not a $1,000 MacBook.
Do you expect to do home repairs on your $600 iPhone or iPad? If you need ultraportability then you sacrifice ease of servicing, that's just how it is. If you want something that you can service yourself then'll always be best with a full sized laptop.
If this memory is soldered directly, does this mean that when it fails one either spends a lot of money to repair the unit or throw it out to buy another one?
Not sure what the expected lifespan of this tech would be but if we're talking two or three years, it's unacceptable to have a $1,000 device that would basically have a three-year lifespan. Not sure about others but I can't afford to drop $1,000+ into a new machine every couple of years.
I can see this sort of scenario playing out with a $300 iPod but not a $1,000 MacBook.
Isn't soldering RAM and storage directly to the motherboard what they currently do anyway? Why is this a problem?
I think for the most part Apple has answered this criticism and people ought to know the tradeoffs they're getting by now. You could make the same complaint about an iPad battery being non-removable, except that the batteries tend not to fail (reliability is very very high) and they have much longer lifespans than batteries from even 5 years ago. So why would anyone ever want to replace the battery? It will outlive the product.
Same goes for flash memory soldered to the motherboard. The failure rate on this memory is probably insanely low and has a very long lifespan. Flash memory advances have been staggering in this regard just in the past few years. You don't have to worry about things you used to have to worry about with platter drives like bad sectors or stiction. And if it does get damaged somehow through no fault of your own, Apple traditionally replaces broken parts (or whole motherboards) for free.
I'm pretty sure the lifespan is well beyond 2 or 3 years. That would've been true of Flash memory from a few years back but a lot has changed since then.
If this memory is soldered directly, does this mean that when it fails one either spends a lot of money to repair the unit or throw it out to buy another one?
Not sure what the expected lifespan of this tech would be but if we're talking two or three years, it's unacceptable to have a $1,000 device that would basically have a three-year lifespan. Not sure about others but I can't afford to drop $1,000+ into a new machine every couple of years.
I can see this sort of scenario playing out with a $300 iPod but not a $1,000 MacBook.
By all or almost all indications, flash memory is a lot more durable than the old style drives, so reliability shouldn't be a problem.
I would prefer storage to be upgradable. Upgrading a drive is the #1 thing that I do to breathe new life into a computer.