Sandisk has announced its new Vaulter Disk system accelerator, which provides a special system cache in the form of Flash memory. This additional memory assists during intensive hard-drive access tasks, such as initially loading Windows, or opening up large applications like Photoshop.
Modern computer systems are often “waiting” for a hard drive to complete tasks, causing endemic inefficiencies that slow the computer down, whenever the hard drive is being relied upon. Adding some fast but affordable Flash memory -- as a buffer between the system and the hard drive -- can cause dramatic performance enhancements.
First described in Intel’s Readyboost technology, using Flash to boost hard drive performance will likely provide a simple and effective computer “acceleration” effect, as it mitigates the time spent waiting for the hard drive, allowing the computer to get more work done in a given time.
The Sandisk Vaulter seems unique in that the idea is to store some often-used information on the flash drive, which under Windows is a known quantity. How this differs precisely from Intel’s Readyboost will have to wait for a lab comparison test.
This Flash-cache technology concept is the basis of performance enhancements found in hybrid hard drives, which will hit the market in 2008. The difference there will be that in a hybrid hard drive, the caching is carried out within the hard drive’s internal system, rather than via an expansion card.
SanDisk Vaulter DiskSpecifications: 8GB or 16GB capacity; flash memory; PCI Express module (desktop and notebook versions);
Price: TBA
