Mac Event Points To The Future Of Computers

In case you haven’t heard Apple recently had an event called “Back To The Mac.” Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, unveiled the latest version of Mac OS X, named Lion, as well as an updated MacBook Air model. Although the new MacBook was expected to have a touch-screen it instead has a multi-touch gesture pad. It was unveiled that there will be a Mac App Store specifically for the MacBook. Thanks to “Lion”, FaceTime will be integrated into the OS to allow users to video chat from their computer directly to someone with an iPhone 4. The computer and its interface are a combination of the iPad, iPhone 4, and MacBook all in one.

All these new features are great, but the one thing that is pretty interesting is that the new MacBook has no hard disk or optical drive. The ultra-thin MacBook only uses flash-based memory. Prices range from $999 for an 11.6-in. model with 64GB of storage to $1,599 for the 13.3-in. model with 256GB of storage. According to the WSJ, “Apple, SanDisk Show Rise of Flash Over Hard Drives.” The article states that it’s a good time to be selling flash memory chips instead of disk drives when looking at earning reports and at Apple’s latest portable Mac.

What most people don’t know is that flash chips are really popular for storing memory in everything from smartphones, digital cameras, and USB drives. Apple began using flash memory with its iPods, and then continued the trend with the iPhone and the iPad. Hard drives are much bigger in comparison to flash memory but have been popular because they store more data at a lower cost per bit. Now that flash memory is becoming cheaper most likely more and more computers will start using flash based memory.

The CEO of SanDisk, Eli Harari, was recently interviewed by the WSJ, about what the “Future of Flash” will look like. In the interview Mr. Harari talks about how everytime they are faced with “the limits of miniaturization,” manufacturers always manage to squeeze more and more transistors on to these powerful chips. The benefits are more data-storage capacity and lowering the cost of production and making it cheaper for mainstream computers to gain this technology. SanDisk currently uses features measured at 43 nanometers.

Harari will only say that the company’s top five customers in the just-ended quarter were makers of smartphones, and that 50% of its revenues came from mobile-device makers. “We have a very very strong presence in the mobile market”, says Harari.  Mr. Harari then says that, “The future is to go eight levels of memory stacked on top of a chip.” This would drastically improve its memory.

What this shows is that the lines between the computer and mobile phones are starting to blur. Eventually these chips will need very little power, while at the same time storing vast amounts of data. Will this be the exact kind of thing that enables “The Evolution of The Internet Pt.3?” If this move by Apple “Could foretell death of hard drives” as stated in a Computer World article, then that means one thing: Computers are about to get much smaller.

Article By Alex Elkan