Windows Phone Thoughts: Samsung Develops Hybrid Hard Drive: Flash Memory & Spinning Platter

"The hybrid hard drive prototype uses 1 Gigabit OneNAND Flash as both the write buffer and boot buffer. In the hybrid write mode, the mechanical drive is spun down for the majority of the time, while data is written to the Flash write buffer. When the write buffer is filled, the rotating drive spins and the data from the write buffer is written to the hard drive. . . . In addition, since the Samsung hybrid disk drive operates at a lower temperature than traditional rotating media, it reduces the possibility of shock and impact damage, improving the overall reliability of the disk subsystem."

Now this is more than promising. :-) These new hybrid drives will probably be slightly more expensive than normal hard drives, but there will be 95% power savings when the disk is not spinning, faster boot times and lower maintenance costs due to increased reliability. These hybrid drives were developed with Longhorn in mind, but would seem to be exactly what we need for large amounts of mobile data storage on Pocket PCs. I wonder if we'll end up calling them semi-hard hard drives, flashy-hard disks, hybrid disks (HHDs) or something else equally unwieldy? Would the hybridisation be enough to get you to buy a PPC with one (the best of both worlds), or do you reckon that spinning platters in mobile devices is an inherently unredeemably bad idea?