SAMSUNG to Unveil First Commercial, Hybrid Hard Drive Prototype for Windows® Vista™ at WinHEC

SAMSUNG to Unveil First Commercial, Hybrid Hard Drive Prototype for Windows® Vista™ at WinHEC

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it is exhibiting the first commercial prototype of a Hybrid Hard Disk (HHD), the much-anticipated next generation hard drive for notebooks and PCs that integrates NAND flash memory with rotating magnetic storage. The HHD will be exhibited with two cache densities, 128MB and 256MB, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in the Seattle, WA Conference Center (Samsung booth #419) May 23-24, 2006. “We see the HHD as the most advanced and cost-effective means of improving the performance of a notebook computer’s storage functionality,” said Jon Kang, senior vice president, technical marketing group, Samsung Semiconductor. “The Samsung HHD addresses the two biggest consumer desires: extending battery life and improving boot and resume performance.”

The hybrid storage device leverages the benefits of both magnetic and solid state storage without compromising the cost of the computer housing it. The high densities of magnetic storage technology are preserved, while the exceptionally low power, high reliability and fast read/write access of advanced NAND flash technology enhance overall value at minimal additional cost. With an HHD, consumers receive a system that boots or resumes up to twice as fast as conventional HDDs, lasts 20-30 minutes longer on battery and is up to five times more reliable.

“Hybrid hard disks and Windows ReadyDrive™ Technology are integrated advancements that improve the performance and reliability of computers using Windows® Vista™, especially notebook computers,” said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president, Windows Client Marketing at Microsoft. “We are very pleased to see Samsung moving so rapidly with HHD technology to prepare for high-volume production in time for the Windows Vista launch.” The Hybrid Hard Disk eliminates the need for the hard disk to constantly spin whenever a computer is operating on battery power, and is less susceptible to damage from jarring or being dropped since it is idle most of the time.

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