What are Hybrid Drives?
Hybrid drives are a new generation of hard disk drives that incorporate large flash memory buffers for increased performance. Samsung Electronics and Microsoft Corporation are working together to bring the first hybrid drives to market by the final quarter of 2006. Most computer users are familiar with flash memory from its application in memory sticks, also called key drives. Flash memory features several significant advantages over the spinning platter technology of conventional hard drives. Hybrid drives take advantage of these benefits. By including a large capacity flash memory buffer, hybrid drives map complete sectors of the hard disk to flash memory. Data transfer speed is faster, as access to the information does not involve locating the data on spinning platters. Sectors are mapped to the buffer depending on frequency of use, though user configuration might also be exercised. Hybrid drives use less power by keeping frequently accessed data in the flash memory, extending valua
