Toshiba is considering building a hybrid solid state drive (SSD) that contains both a spinning disk and flash memory. In a statement reported by Tech-On, Toshiba attributed the rationale for such a design to a desire to bring about greater energy savings. Toshiba reportedly said, "...It [the hybrid drive] enables to save energy by about 80 percent compared with a storage device consisting of only HDDs."

No further information is immediately available on how Toshiba intends to achieve the quoted energy savings in spite of packing a traditional HDD onboard. The Registry hypothesized that this suggested that the company will either plan to spin the drive down completely most of the time, or set it to rotate at speeds that are much slower than usual. At the same time, Toshiba also says it was also considering "traditional" SSD for use in datacenter use.

There is no doubt at all that the desktops and datacenters of the future will be based in some way or other on the blistering speeds afforded by SSD technology. The more pertinent question now is really related to the eventual pace of adoption, and how quickly prices can be expected drop.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Register

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