New MacBook Airs may be even more advanced than expected
The new MacBook Airs are due any day now, and I'm excited about them, especially if reports are true about some high-end tech they'll be using.
Apple will adopt "Toggle DDR 2.0," a 19-nanometer process for NAND flash memory, according to a a report from the "Macotakara" (http://macte.ch/KyGcE) web site. Toggle DDR 2.0, an industry first, sports 64-gigabit flash chips manufactured using 20nm processes that boast a 400Mbps transfer rate. That makes these toggle DDR 2.0 chips about three times faster than toggle DDR 1.0 (a 133Mbps interface) -- or 10 times faster than the 40Mbps SDR NAND flash currently in use.
Apple's current SSDs offer read and write speeds of over 200MB/s, more than four times the 400Mb/s -- or 50MB/s -- offered by Toggle DDR 2.0. Apple would be chaining multiple chips together, however, providing the performance required to match or exceed today's technology, according to the "thinq" web site (http://macte.ch/hQB5W).
Toggle DDR 2.0 is designed to consume less power than synchronous DDR NAND flash by eliminating the clock signal typically used in synchronous DDR memories. The specification also provides faster access (read) and recording (write) times.
The new technology will replace the Blade X-gale found in the current MacBook Air models, says "Macotakara." The new 19-nanometer flash memory will purportedly be packaged on a smaller chip, and will be soldered onto the base circuit of the new thin-and-light notebook directly.
The Toggle DDR 2.0 standard is supported by Toshiba and Samsung. Both companies currently supply flash drives for the MacBook Air, though Samsung and Apple are currently in a heated legal battle over patents for tablets and smartphones.
I love the MacBook Air as its a perfect complement to my 27-inch iMac. I use the desktop as my main computer/workhorse. The MacBook Air is its little brother for use on the road -- or when I need to do some light computing while sitting on the couch or in bed. But it could never be my main computer, even with Toggle DDR 2.0.
-- Dennis Sellers
