Optical drive sales have slowed down considerably in 2010, as many people opt for USB and networking for media storage and transfer. In a move to help counter this, Hitachi-LG have been working on new optical Hybrid drives which combine and optical disk drive and SSD in a single enclosure.
While this may not be a huge selling point for a desktop enthusiast owner, it means that in the ultra portable class of notebooks that companies can save space by combining both an OS drive and optical drive into the same footprint.
These new drives are a by product of the HyDrive concept that HLDS showcased earlier this year however with this latest announcement from Hitachi LG, Micron are the supplier of the NAND flash components. The first drives due for release will ship with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of memory.
“The success of Micron's 25nm NAND flash memory has driven yet another innovative application. The HLDS Hybrid Drive breakthrough is another example of Micron NAND flash technology's impact on everything from digital cameras and MP3 players, to smartphones, tablet PCs, and now hybrid ODDs,” Kevin Kilbuck, director of marketing for Micron's NAND solutions group said today.