Samsung Electronics Co. together with Microsoft Corp. has announced the first Hybrid Hard Drive (HHD) prototype, a model combining NAND memory with storing technology based on mobile mechanisms, like plates and heads.

The hybrid disk was designed to be compatible with Longhorn and can be "admired" during the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) conference, organized in Seattle.

The device will have the advantages of both technologies, flash memory with hard disk storage, without compromising the quality of the structure protecting this prototype.

Considering these cumulated qualities, the hybrid is announced as a successful solution, and the Hybrid Hard Drive storage solution will be available at a comparable or even lower price than current available solutions.

The hybrid produced by Samsung and Microsoft uses OneNAND 1GB Flash memory as buffer memory for writing data as well as for booting. In the hybrid writing mode, the speed of the mechanic drive is decreased, and the data is written in the Flash buffer. When this memory is full, the mechanic drive is spun back and the data is written on the disk. This solution will be included into mobile devices like notebooks, portable multimedia devices and other gadgets that require a low power consumption.