I read an article about Intel's SSDs a few months ago. It basically said a "normal" user would see five times read speeds with SSD over the best 7200rpms. That's "average" or typical use like turn on, open apps, open files and etc. However within three to four years SSDs will cost less than double HDDs. At that time, both read and write speeds will triple today's SSDs.
It made me wonder then, which was not discussed in the article, what type of drive controller would be capable of that sort of throughput. I mean an Intel SSD would easily saturate SATA which had extremely frustrated some new MBP buyers who were not getting SATA-II capability with their new MBPs.
That sort of speed would be limited by SATA-II. So is SATA-III the next advancement? What sort of bandwidth does it allow? When would that technology be available for notebooks?
I am really most looking forward to greatly improved SSDs. They will speed up computers far more than CPUs or more RAM. I think SSDs have the potential to speed up computers more than any other component. Macs are really going to be greatly superior three or four years from now with all of the enhancements like fast SSDs, OpenCL, Grand Central Dispatch, and etc. Software will take advantage of multiple cores and GPUs. And SSDs will reduce the huge bottleneck over HDDs.
I remember the first time I used a MacBook Air with Nvidia GPU and SSD. It really seemed like I was working on a Mac Pro. The thing booted in 20 seconds, apps opened instantly, and large files opened instantly. I was truly amazed, as I had never used even a MBP with 7200 rpm with anywhere near that kind of speed.
It's a great time to be a Mac lover. I cannot wait for Snow Leopard and then the next MacBook Air.
