Solid-state computing

A few decades ago, the term “solid-state” meant the replacement of technology such as vacuum tubes with transistors. It was space age. It also signaled the beginning of a new era in which computers didn’t require an entire city block and a substantial portion of the power grid to operate (not to mention interns pushing shopping carts of vacuum tubes up and down aisles searching for failed tubes).

It seems the term is making a comeback as modern computers begin to phase out one of their last few moving parts: The hard drive. Flash memory is becoming a popular replacement for a number of reasons including low power consumption and its relatively robust nature (you can smack around a flash chip much more than a hard drive).

According to the Wall Street Journal, one flash storage provider has been purchasing bulk flash memory at about $56 per gigabyte six months ago, a figure that’s now down to $9 a gigabyte. If the trend continues, in less than a year we could be seeing flash memory for about a dollar and a half per gigabyte, bringing a 200 GB solid-state drive into the range of $290.

I’m looking forward to seeing plug-and-play drives that are tough enough to pop into my shirt pocket, yet carry enough information to replace my laptop’s hard drive. That, and the added boost in performance and battery life will be a big win. 2008, where are you? I want my solid-state computer already!