Commentary--Flash Memory to Take Over Hard Disk Drives But is Loading OS X First?

Some time ago we were involved in an attempt to market the idea of storing the operating system (OS) on a powered memory chip (or chips since they were much smaller then but so was an OS) connected with a bootable bridge through a SCSI port just like a hard disk drive. Storing the OS on memory chips would allow a computer to begin functioning virtually as soon as it was turned on, saving the long, slow grind of the hard drive loading the OS into memory and the reverse long wait to shut down a computer. The regular hard drive would be used primarily to store applications and data plus a backup copy of the OS that could be updated as needed and reloaded into the memory "drive". Unfortunately, right after we began trying to interest someone with manufacturing capability in the idea, Apple came out with Macs that sleep. Essentially, sleep is kind of the same idea but only partially implemented.

We still think installing the OS on a memory chip, now flash memory, internally is a better design and could be done relatively cheaply today. Tomorrow, given the falling prices of flash memory, those chips could take over smaller hard drives, especially those in laptops, as many have already pointed out. More... [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]