I was over on reddit watching a video Micron Technology had posted to youtube, about their Crucial SSDs, and it just hit me. The latest and greatest flash memory card, the 128GB 1000x CF card can only write at about ~145MB/s, and read at ~150MB/s, goes for about $650. The SDXC version can only write at 90MBps and read at 95MBps and goes for about $200.
You can get a Mushkin 480GB mSATA SSD that can write at 425MBps and read at 540MBps for $450, or a ADATA 256GB for $259. That is to say, the throughput is far superior, and CF cards use the ATA standard anyways.
You may say, oh, its the size. mSATA cards use the MiniPCIe standard, which makes them 50.8mm L x 29.85mm W, and most mSATA SSDs are under 4mm thick. The CF standard is 43mm L x 39mm W x 3.3mm (CF1) or 5mm (CF2). Seems to me it would be a very minor engineering change to physically switch to mSATA SSDs instead of CF cards, and I am guessing that most camera companies can easily switch their firmware over to use a SATA system instead of PATA.
They could even engineer in a removable case for the SSDs, since they are usually sold as bare circuit boards. I know there is the CFast standard for CF cards, which is based on SATA instead of the PATA which cards currently used. But no one is using it either. They should skip it altogether and go straight for mSATA SSDs.
What do you guys think of this idea?
You can get a Mushkin 480GB mSATA SSD that can write at 425MBps and read at 540MBps for $450, or a ADATA 256GB for $259. That is to say, the throughput is far superior, and CF cards use the ATA standard anyways.
You may say, oh, its the size. mSATA cards use the MiniPCIe standard, which makes them 50.8mm L x 29.85mm W, and most mSATA SSDs are under 4mm thick. The CF standard is 43mm L x 39mm W x 3.3mm (CF1) or 5mm (CF2). Seems to me it would be a very minor engineering change to physically switch to mSATA SSDs instead of CF cards, and I am guessing that most camera companies can easily switch their firmware over to use a SATA system instead of PATA.
They could even engineer in a removable case for the SSDs, since they are usually sold as bare circuit boards. I know there is the CFast standard for CF cards, which is based on SATA instead of the PATA which cards currently used. But no one is using it either. They should skip it altogether and go straight for mSATA SSDs.
What do you guys think of this idea?