[MW Forums]

Samsung plans to begin production of a 16Gb flash memory chip next year. more

[fribhey]

how does 32GB = 20 DVD-quality movies? are we talking 20 minute movies? or really compressed full length movies that are actually no longer DVD-quality because they are compressed so much?

[bigpics]

Get ready for "nanogigaPods"......

[Peter Cohen]

iPod pico.

[leicaman]

Powerbook Nano! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[TheBum]

20 full-length, DVD-quality (720x480) movies taking up a total of 32 GB or less are definitely possible with the newer codecs, e.g. H.264. By today's standards, the MPEG-2 codec used for DVDs is rather inefficient, which is understandable considering how old the MPEG-2 standard is.

[melgross]

There have been 8GB Compact Flash cards out for a while now.
The question is what these chips would cost in quantities that Apple would be buying.

[MacGod]

I really think we need to do away with arbitrary and subjective measurements like "songs" and "DVD-quality movies". I wince every time the MP3 player manufacturers (Apple included) claim their devices can hold "up to 1000 songs" or some such nonsense. The 4GB iPod nano, for example, can hold 1000 songs according to Apple's marketing; so could the original 5GB iPod. So, a 20% decrease in space doesn't result in any decrease in songs?
It's like those articles that talk about "the hard drive is so big it can hold x times the amount of info in the library of congress". Libraries of congress, DVD-quality movies and songs are not real units.

[DogHouseDub]

the NanoGigaPod, only $1,600.00 at your local Apple store....well, considering a 4 Gb compact flash card is about $200 now...

[drmbb]

There's also been 2.5" form factor (9.4mm thick) 100GB+ solid state disks available for awhile (M-Systems) too. You could install one of these into a powerbook - they should fit (well, okay, not the higher capacity models - they're too thick), the interface is compatible, but they do draw a bit more power than a conventional hard disk.
Oh, and they cost several 10's of thousands of dollars
--

[jedi228]

This is great news and probably directly related to the iPod nano.
One can only imagine the backroom deals... Apple gets huge exclusive discounts with first dibs on future technology. Samsung gets guarantees from Apple for large volume purchases. --even if Samsung doesn't make a lot of money for the direct sales, a guaranteed buyer allows Samsung to go the bank and take out loan so they can invest in production. Both Apple and Samsung are locking out the competition.

[Peter Cohen]

[indent]In reply to:

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Libraries of congress, DVD-quality movies and songs are not real units.

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[/indent]
Exactly. Everyone knows that the only true unit of measurement is comparing the object to the square mileage of Rhode Island.

[uchuugaka]

as I have said in previous posts.
Optical media is dead in the water.
Forget about an HDdvd vs BluRay war.
It'll never pan out.
By the time they got any market traction and affordability going for it, HDD density/size and FlashMemory will have reached a level of affordability and viability to completely replace solid media distribution.
it will become defacto to get digital files only. and possibly on proprietary devices that lock out tampering (except for the most techy and sneaky pirates)
this news from samsung (if the yields are stable at 50nano process) is great for consumers and users.
one does have to wonder if it will replace harddrives in notebooks.
certainly starts to seem viable.

[jbh001]

[indent]In reply to:

---

as I have said in previous posts.
Optical media is dead in the water.
Forget about an HDdvd vs BluRay war.
It'll never pan out.
By the time they got any market traction and affordability going for it, HDD density/size and FlashMemory will have reached a level of affordability and viability to completely replace solid media distribution.

---

[/indent]
Lets do the math. Today's DVD's hold almost 5GB and cost less than $0.50 to produce.
4GB of flash memory today costs just under $150 on the spot market according to some reports.
So how soon do you think that 4GB of flash memory will cost less than $0.50 wholesale? Even if flash memory prices are cut in half every year, thats still 8 years minimum before it approaches price competitiveness with today's DVDs.
How soon will 4GB of hard disk be less than $0.50 wholesale?
I'm banking on BluRay, followed possibly by holographic disks next.