New Sleepworking Drive Saves Battery Life
Microsoft and Samsung Electronics recently showed a prototype hard drive that can record data while idling, a twist that has the potential to significantly cut power consumption in notebooks.
The trick is that the hard drive contains a 1GB flash-memory chip. Incoming data is directly recorded to the chip. When the chip is close to full, the hard drive wakes up, takes the data, records it, and goes back into idle.
Typically, hard drives rotate, but in the hybrid model, the drive rarely spins only about 30 to 45 seconds every half hour, says Ivan Greenberg, director of strategic marketing for Samsung Semiconductor, a division of Samsung Electronics. The goal is to get it to 30 to 45 seconds per hour.
“The traditional hard drive takes up about 10 to 15 percent of the battery power of your notebook,” Greenberg says. Thus, in a notebook with a 4-hour battery, the hybrid drive could extend battery life by about 36 minutes. The companies also say the drive could help accelerate boot up time.