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Is Apple Planning a Solid State Drive Option in All Upcoming Notebooks?

Amidst all of the ongoing hoopla regarding Apple’s upcoming notebook overhaul, not much attention has been given to the possible inclusion of Solid State Drives, which would cement the need for the custom chipsets we’ve recently been hearing about.

We’ve already seen various third parties install Solid State Drives into Macs where Apple doesn’t offer the option. But when will we see the option come straight from Apple? We already know that Apple offers a 64GB SSD option in the Macbook Air, but even after the recent $500 price cut, the SSD equipped Macbook Air runs $2,598.00 at the bottom.

This past February Gizmodo reported that the “…price of flash memory is plummeting, with it dropping 75% in the last 5 months alone. In fact, 1GB chipsets are selling for as low as $2.23, with 4GB chipsets going for as low as $12.30.” While these drive capacities are simply too small for general computing purposes, the price drop is expected to make 128GB SSD’s more accessible on the consumer level.

Typically, top-of-the line professional level notebooks benefit most from solid state drives, needing faster load speeds, skip-proof protection, more secure storage, and increased boot times. At this point, drive manufacturers like Samsung can manufacture a 128 GB solid state drive for less than 64 GB drives have cost in the past.

Offering an SSD option in each and every Mac, doesn’t seem completely out of the question for Apple in its upcoming notebook overhaul.

For example, if you can only afford a $1,500 computer, and you really want a Solid State Drive, then perhaps you could buy the low-end Macbook with the optional SSD upgrade.

This seems like a legit option that Apple could include in each notebook for an additional cost. I can think of many people who this option would send over the edge in their computer purchasing decisions. Being able to sell a product for $1,500 with a solid state drive will be very difficult for competitors to defend against. Aside from the software, Apple would continue to set a new standard in the industry with hardware.

The video above represents a test done by Samsung showcasing the differences between Solid State Drives and Hard Disk Drives. SSD pretty much wins across the board. If you have 3:30 minutes, it’s an interesting watch.

Additionally, recent reports have given light to the possible inclusion of non-Intel chipsets. Not the core CPU, which would continue to be supplied by Intel, but primarily chipsets that would be focused on decreasing power consumption in Apple’s upcoming notebook line. If true, an SSD option in each new notebook could integrate perfectly with the cutting edge chipsets that Apple could be planning to use.

Some Advantages of Solid State Drives listed on Wikipedia:

• Faster start-up – as no spin-up is required. (RAM & Flash)
• Typically fast random access for reading – as there is no read/write head to move. (RAM & Flash)
• Extremely low read and write latency times – as SSD seek-times are orders of magnitude lower than the best current hard disk drives.[4] (RAM) In applications where hard disk seeks are the limiting factor this results in faster boot and application launch times ( see Amdahl’s law).[5] (RAM)
• No noise – a lack of moving parts makes SSDs completely silent, unless, as in the case of some high-end and high-capacity models, they have cooling fans attached. (RAM & Flash)
• For low-capacity SSDs, low power consumption and heat production when in active use - although high-end SSDs and DRAM-based SSDs may have significantly higher power requirements.
• High mechanical reliability – the lack of moving parts almost eliminates the risk of mechanical failure. (RAM & Flash)
• Ability to endure extreme shock, high altitude, vibration and extremes of temperature – once again because there are no moving parts.[6] This makes SSDs useful for laptops, mobile computers, and devices that operate in extreme conditions. (Flash)[5]
• Relatively deterministic read performance[7] – unlike hard disk drives, performance of SSDs is almost constant and deterministic across the entire storage. This is because the seek time is almost constant and is not dependent on the physical location of the data, and so, file fragmentation has almost no impact on read performance.
• For low-capacity SSDs, lower weight and size – although size and weight per unit storage are still better for traditional hard drives, and microdrives allow up to 20 GB storage in a CompactFlash 42.8×36.4×5 mm (1.7×1.4×.2 in) form-factor. Up to 256 GB, SSDs are currently lighter than hard drives of the same capacity.[6]

Apple continues to set itself apart from its competitors. If the trend is to continue, we need to see Solid State Drives, or an option to have them built-to-order directly from Apple.