Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. (HLDS), a global leader and technology innovator in optical disc storage (ODD), today announced HyDrive, the world's first solid state drive (SSD) embedded ODD.
HyDrive is going to be available in August 2010, installed on the Family PC 102 series from Moneual.
HyDrive is a total storage solution on the PC using the advantages of three storage device types - conventional hard drives, solid state drives and optical drives - without added space on the motherboard and modification of system architecture limited to replacing the existing ODD. Hydrive combines the advantages of an SSD drive with those of an ODD. The 1st generation of the HyDrive will offer an SSD capacity of 32GB and 64GB. HLDS plans to release the 2nd generation of HyDrive next year, which will further boost the SSD capacity to 256GB and will have even faster SSD performance moving from SATA3.0Gbps to the SATA6.0Gbps interface. The 2nd generation HyDrive will be ready for mass production in March 2011, HLDS said.
"We are very excited about the potential of this ground-breaking product", says HLDS CMO YK Park. "The PC industry have come to expect us to lead in optical storage products and HyDrive is the logical next step, where it offers user benefits to PC booting, shutdown and application loading times with typically 30~60% reduction in addition to robust media handling and playback."
HyDrive offers hard disk drive (HDD) performance boosting in two ways. One is through using the entire SSD as a cache by the HLDS filter driver. The other is by having Windows and Microsoft Office applications installed and the remaining capacity serve as a cache.
Having 32GB of SSD suffices in accommodating Windows and Microsoft Office applications, offering consumers the enjoyment and stress-free experience of PC usage with pure SSD speeds.
As a SSD drive, Hydrive offers a sequential write speed of 60Mbps (max) and read speed of 175Mbps. As an optical storage drive, Hydrive is able to read BD-ROM-R/RE (SL/DL) at 4.8x, DVD-ROM (SL /DL) at 8x, DVD+R/-R/RW at 8x, DVD+R/-R DL at 6x, CD-ROM/-R/RW at 24x. Writing speeds are 8x for DVD+R/-R/RW, 4x for DVD+R/-R DL and 24x for CD-R/RW.
HyDrive also enables a smaller PC foot print (7-9"tablet PCs such as the Ultra Mobile PC, for example) by removing the HDD or SSD from the motherboard and just having HyDrive with its SSD as primary storage.
Other features have been developed for a combination of ODD and SSD benefits, such as media readability which differentiates readability and playability of data, audio or movie discs from other ODDs in the market, using the dedicated burning feature. It provides smooth playback even of discs in poor condition due to scratches and fingerprints. The HyDrive features a smart defect management system for optical discs. Actually, the drive is copying defective data found on an optical disc to the SSD and then it is read from SSD and not the ODD.
HLDS have been working with their partners AMD, ASUS and Moneual to achieve a successful market launch.
"AMD's latest 8-series chipsets have both the required hardware and driver support for HyDrive, including SATA port multiplier support, which enables combined optical and solid state functionality in the HLDS HyDrive", said AMD's Niles Burbank, Senior Product Manager for AMD's Platform Solutions.
Moneual will deliver the very first launch of HyDrive through their Family PC in August 2010, showcasing home theater quality performance.
ASUS plans to launch the 1st generation HyDrive on their Eee Top range, and the 2nd generation HyDrive global debut on the N61DA notebook after testing HLDS samples.
Source: CDRINFO
