Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. (HLDS), a global leader and technology innovator in optical disc storage (ODD) revealed to introduce SAT 6.0Gbps based 2nd Generation, ‘Hybrid Drive’, as a successive product to ODD Hybrid Drive 1st Generation introduced in Taiwan last June which was loaded with SSD(Solid State Drive) for the first time in the world, at CEATEC 2010 held in Makuhari Messe, Japan, from October 5 to 9.

The 2nd Generation, ‘Hybrid Drive’, is an innovative product equipped with SATA III(6.0Gbps) based improved speed, and a comprehensive SATA port, by accumulating ODD & SSD circuits in a integrated PCB. This is a perfect reincarnation of the previous ODD structure, and users of all PC products can utilize HDD, ODD, SDD at the same time without having to change the entire system, by just exchanging the previous ODD.

Differentiated functions have been added to the Hybrid Drive such as the Green Playback; a low electricity- Title playing technology, and a comparison of real functions between Hybrid Drive applied products and non applied products of AIO(All-in-one) PC, Mini PC, HTPC, Gaming/Premium Notebook, will be introduced at this CEATEC 2010.

PC News Media K-Bench(www.kbench.com) and Editor of Betanews(www.betanews.net), who recently progressed Benchmark of the 1st Generation Hybrid Drive, foresaw that 256 GB supported 2nd Generation, ‘Hybrid drive’, will play big roles in the distribution of SSD, as SSD will be seen as a tool for driving OS & Application through Hybrid Drive, such as for decreasing PC Booting time and Performance increase, no longer as just a simple saving apparatus.

To support this, according to the Benchmark progressed by PC News Media ‘Betanews’, there seems to have been discrete differences between 1st Generation ‘Hybrid Drive’ and general Hard Disks, in PC System( Windows 7 64bit Ultimate Edition) Booting time where each respectively recorded 16 sec and 29 sec, in Starcraft 2 Battlenet Loading time where each respectively recorded 20 sec, 38 sec, etc. (PC System Specification : 1st Generation ‘Hybrid Drive’ and 2.5inch 5,400RPM 320GB Hard Disk each on Intel Celeron Core SU2300, DDR3 4GB Memory , ION Based ITX System) In addition, relations explained that results will become more dramatic once various Applications are installed in the PC.

[ Link: HLDS, Aving News ]

All of the drama surrounding the CrunchPad [ Related: CrunchPad Litigation Imminent ] seems to not have stopped Fusion Garage from relabeling the CrunchPad the JooJoo.

Possessing a rather large 12.1″ Capacitive screen, the JooJoo runs off a *Nix based OS that boots directly into a browser that houses all of the applications that will be used by this machine. The JooJoo has no physical buttons on the outside other than the power button and has a 4gb SSD, Wifi (no 3G), an accelerometer and about a 4-5 hour battery life.

Pre-orders start on December 11th for $499 USD.

Yeah… funky name for a product that might eventually be stopped from being sold due to pending litigation.

[ Links: The JooJoo, Engadget Hands On ]

I am not in a position to say whether the claims that the CompuLab fit-PC2i is the smallest desktop on the market are accurate, but it is tiny and they might be. The tiny desktop is 4 inches wide, a bit over an inch tall, is built out of aluminum and weighs in at just 13 ounces. It’s tiny.

While the Atom processor might not be good for any processor intensive functions, it is enough to run Windows 7 professional, and it runs off just 8 watts and runs cool enough to not need a fan.

Specs are what one would expect: Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz, or Atom Z510 1.1GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM with a 2GB upgrade option, 4GB of on-board flash memory and a 2.5-inch drive bay.

So, what can it do? If you look at the back there are 4 USB ports, a pair of Ethernet ports and a mislabeled HDMI port. If you get the WLAN option it would be a great way to stream 1080p video to your TV and if you shell out the dollars for an SSD you can have a totally silent system. I liked the DVICE idea of mounting it on the back of the screen, but the form factor is such that you can hide it away just about anywhere.

Prices vary according to the options, you can choose from diskless, pre-loaded Ubuntu, XP or Windows 7, but for my money the Diskless (on) system looks like a pretty good buy. Drop in an extra GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD and you get a versatile little system. [Compulab via DVICE]

Link to the original article…

With USB 3.0 coming out very soon, it is expected all that had preceded it (USB 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 for instance) will be destroyed by how fast it can access other USB 3.0 enabled devices. Tweaktown [ site here ] puts an early chipset through its paces against Firewire 400, Firewire 800, eSATA, SATA and USB 2.0 of course with varying results.

In our first test using HD Tune Pro, we can see that USB 3.0 is plenty faster than USB 2.0 when using the Intel SSD. It’s not 10 times faster as the marketing data tells us, but it is six times faster and a good sign for a technology still in its early stages of deployment in the consumer space.

Tweaktown shows a few graphs worth of information that show how you might want to hold off and buy a SATA 2.0 and USB 3.0 based motherboard for your next PC build. Definitely worthy of a quick read [ read more ], and they found that SATA 2.0 is keeping pace and sometimes beat USB 3.0 – barely.

[ Tweaktown ]