The once far flung, future idea of a PC composed only of solid state storage has come one step closer to affordable reality thanks to Samsung. It has begun production of its new 1.8 inch 64GB flash drives. The new hardware is designed to replace the magnetic hard discs technology and is about the same size as a conventional portable 1.8inch drive. The key advantages of flash drives over hard disc drives are energy savings and speed. Saving energy is critical to battery powered portable equipment.

However, the higher cost of solid state storage has been the most recent hurdle for the technology. But the gap is narrowing to where now they’re appearing in laptops and other mobile devices which is great news for students and traveling workers who demand mobility.

You can tell critical mass is reached for industry excitement over a technology when it gets its own acronym. Solid State Drives now or “SSD” is now the official acronym for the chip based flash drive. Sadly SSD is only one letter away from the much maligned acronym STD – which happens to be just as mobile and also well known among students and traveling workers.