Samsung has recently introduced MH80, world’s first 2.5-inch hybrid hard drive with 256 megabytes of flash memory. It is designed to work in tandem with Windows Vista capable notebook PCs. Combining hard disk drive with a OneNAND Flash cache it offers faster application launch speeds, faster boot and resume times, increased battery life and greater reliability when used with Microsoft’s ReadyDrive software.

MH80 hybrid hard drive is currently available at a $299 MSRP. When the MH80 motor is switched off, the drive parks its heads in a protective ramp and becomes much less susceptible to shock damage, minimizing the possibility of data loss even under extreme conditions. Samsung’s ReadyBoot technology offers up to a 50 percent reduction in boot and resume times from traditional magnetic media technology.

“The best way to understand the positioning of hybrid HDD technology is to think of it as the next revolutionary step in performance. First there was notebook 2.5” HDDs with 2MB DRAM caches. Then 8MB DRAM caches were introduced to improve performance. The 256MB flash memory cache included in Samsung’s hybrid HDD technology is the next major step in performance for 2.5” HDDs,” continued Higginbotham.