Will multi-actuators save the disk drive?
Disk drives win against SSDs on $/bit, but lose on I/Os per second (IOPS). Seagate is now floating the idea of multiple actuators in a single disk drive. Will that save disk drives from oblivion?
Latest Posts
Three ways to fix DRAM's latency problem
DRAM has been powering computer memory for some 50 years, but there's a problem. While DRAM capacities have grown, and bandwidth has too, latency has barely changed in the last two decades. Here's three ways to fix that.
Samsung's $26 billion bet
Samsung is more than doubling its semiconductor fab investment next year. Besides a welcome increase in supply - and a drop in prices - it also is an attempt to dominate, perhaps even monopolize, the critical DRAM and NAND flash markets. How will this play out?
OpenDrives: Building an 8K video editing rig
When I went to the NAB 2017 show this spring, everyone was showing 4K. But only one was editing full -- not proxies -- 8K video: A company by the name of OpenDrives. How does it do it?
Can tech make your videos more interesting?
Video cameras are so good and storage so cheap that we can make lengthy videos of our everyday activities that even the makers don't want to watch. Techies are hard at work to enable automated editing that emphasizes the interesting bits. Here's a report from the front lines.
Four methods hackers use to steal data from air-gapped computers
Air-gapped computers are seen as high-value targets, so considerable research has gone into taking data from them -- without a network connection. Here's what you need to know.
Smartphone surveillance: Are you drunk?
Before the advent of smartphones you weren't under constant surveillance with an always-on network. Now an unholy trinity of smartphone, network, and artificial intelligence threatens to let the well-intentioned regulate every aspect of life. If you're drunk, will your smartphone let you drive?
Will NVRAM replace SSDs or DRAM?
NVRAM is a technology that could replace both solid-state drives (SSDs) or memory (DRAM). Which will it be?
Backblaze: Here's how reliable high capacity drives are
Backblaze, the cloud backup provider, has released its latest drive reliability numbers, including 8, 10, and 12TB drives, as well as older 4, 5, and 6TB drives. "Consumer" drives continue to beat, slightly, "Enterprise" drives in reliability. Here's what you need to know.
Why Apple won't move the Mac to ARM
Apple's A10 bionic chip is as fast as many x86 chips. Which leads to speculation that Apple will migrate macOS to its own chips. Here's why that won't happen.
Running Hadoop on a Raspberry Pi 2 cluster
Last week I wrote about a 300 node cluster using Raspberry Pi (RPi) microcomputers. But can you do useful work on such a low-cost, low-power cluster? Yes, you can. Hadoop runs on massive clusters, but you can also run it on your own, highly-scalable, RPi cluster.
Building a 300 node Raspberry Pi supercomputer
Commodity hardware makes possible massive 100,000 node clusters, because, after all, commodity hardware is "cheap" -- if you're Google. What if you want a lot of cycles but don't have a few million dollars to spend? Think Raspberry Pi.
Apple's strategic move on storage pricing: Much better for larger capacities
Apple's iOS storage prices just went up due to higher NAND flash costs. But even with that, Apple's iOS storage prices are much better than they were 18 months ago -- and more favorable for larger capacities. We can expect even better pricing in 2018. Here's why.
VyprVPN: Golden Frog's VPN delivers high-performance, anonymity, and flexibility
I've been using Golden Frog's premium-priced virtual private network service exclusively for six months to see how it performs in the real world. Here's what I've learned.
Why I love the Files app in iOS 11: iPads can finally replace notebooks
You can have your augmented reality and a more human sounding Siri. The killer app in iOS 11 is its Files app, the iOS equivalent to the macOS Finder.
