Imagine a Windows laptop that could boot up as much as 25 seconds more quickly than usual, last up to 30 minutes longer on battery power, and be as much as five times more reliable than existing PCs.

That is Samsung's vision for the value of its new Hybrid Hard Drive (HHD), a next-generation drive that combines flash memory with traditional rotating magnetic storage.

The company announced the drive on Wednesday and will be showing it at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle, Washington, next week.

The magnetic storage part of the drive will provide the high storage densities found in standard hard-drive technology, while the flash part of the drive will provide the reliability, the fast read-write access, and the low power consumption, Samsung said.

Vista Coordination

When flash memory is being used, the hard drive remains idle which, according to Samsung, can save battery power and make the drive less susceptible to damage. The hard drive spins to "flush out" memory a few times every 10 to 20 minutes, then returns to its idle state unless it is needed.

Microsoft sees the product as complementing the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

"Hybrid hard disks and Windows ReadyDrive Technology are integrated advancements that improve the performance and reliability of computers using Windows Vista, especially notebook computers," said Mike Sievert, Microsoft's corporate vice president in the Windows Client Marketing division, in a statement.

It is expected that the hybrid drives will be marketed under the ReadyDrive brand name and released in coordination with Vista's rollout.

Experts Divided

Industry observers were divided on the value and viability of this hybrid approach. "These kinds of drives have the best of both worlds and this could be a great drive for consumers wanting to use their PCs for entertainment," said Nicole d'Onofrio, an analyst at research firm Current Analysis. "I estimate we'll see other manufacturers with hybrids by the end of this year or beginning of 2007."

But Joseph Unsworth, a principal analyst at Gartner, questioned whether Intel's upcoming Robson technology could overtake this market need. "Robson offers flash right on the chipset," he said. "We're going to see a lot of notebooks with Robson, and you don't need Vista to run it." He said he expects Robson to be out in first quarter of 2007.

Gartner analyst John Monroe downplayed the value of the Samsung HHD technology. "There is nothing new in having cache on a hard drive -- it's been done for years," he said. "The basic difference here is that it is bigger and nonvolatile. The main reason you would need it is because Vista takes so long to boot."

With mobile devices, it might have some value, he said. "But probably not with desktop machines, which are often left on."