The latest Apple launch garnered worldwide attention,
as is its custom nowadays, and was used to reveal the brand new iPad Mini, as
well as a whole host of other updates and changes to their existing products.
One of the most exciting new features was the introduction of the Fusion drive,
available in their desktop Apple computers, the iMac and the Mac Mini. The
Fusion drive combines hard disk drives with flash memory and
offers a ‘fusion’ of 128GB of NAND flash memory, and either a huge 1TB or 3TB
hard disk drive.
When paired together, this combination of Apple memory types
means much faster boot times, as well as a rapid launch of pre-loaded
applications and programs. These apps, the operating system itself and any
vital programs are all pre-loaded onto the flash memory for the fastest
possible access times. 4GB of the flash memory is also devoted to acting as a
write buffer, which stores new data on the flash memory whilst speeding up
writes that don’t fit comfortable on the buffer. The older data is transferred
to the hard disk drive as and when it is written, speeding up performance
substantially, especially when writing smaller amounts of data.
By moving the most frequently-accessed data and apps
to the flash memory, and moving the least frequently-accessed data to the hard
disk drive, access times for the most popular functions are incredibly fast. In
managing the storage this way, combining the best of both computer memory
solutions, Apple came up with the name for the Fusion drive. This brand new
approach to memory is being hailed as a performance-booster for hard disk
drive-only computers, with a much lower price tag than a SSD-only computer.
As Apple has already introduced this new memory option
in its desktop computers, it seems only a matter of time before it is
implemented within their range of notebooks. The write cache would be a
revolutionary feature for notebooks, which are currently hybrid hard disk
drives unsupportive of write caching. In allowing the hard disk drive to
consume lower power for longer periods of time, battery life for notebooks
could be vastly improved upon, as well as the overall performance boost that
would be standard.
Apple has long since been the go-to manufacturer for
many users who regularly access vast amounts of content, including artists,
musicians, designers and other creative professionals. Increasing the amount of
local storage their products have, whilst simultaneously increasing the levels
of performance could be the last piece of the puzzle for Apple. This new dual
storage option offers both capacity and speed, and can be expected to be
wheeled out within all Apple products in the coming years.
