Last week end, I was in the science museum, London. One of the most fascinating cabinets that I saw was products from the last 50 years. Looking over a few household products it really shows how quickly technology is progressing. There was an absolutely massive VCR that was at least four times the size of a typical DVD recorder. At the time I'm sure everyone wanted one and was the coolest gadget around.

Following this trend, the computers that we drool over today will one day be the lumbering pieces of junk that people see at museums. It is slightly depressing to see all these redundant appliances ? but at the same time it is exiting to wonder what the future has in store for us. So what are computers going to be like in the next few decades? Most people would say smaller and more powerful. Sure ? a wise prediction, but how on earth can computers be any smaller than the minute scale they are already at?

In the summer of 2007, Custom PC magazine published a feature on solid state drives (SSDs). Also known as flash drives ? this technology has already reached the mainstream in the form of USB memory sticks and the iPod nano. However, according to the article these drives will one day replace the conventional hard drive.

A Current Application: The iPod

To explain the difference, let's take the iPod for example. The 2007 version of the iPod nano uses flash memory to store up to 8 GB of songs and photos. Unlike the larger iPods available, it has no moving parts and therefore can withstand being dropped and will never wear out. To tell the difference, just put your ear to it. A larger iPod makes lots of whiz and clicking noises as the platters spin round ? whereas the nano makes no noise at all.

Having no moving parts is not just good news for reliability; it also means that drives can be lightning fast. As far as I can remember from the article, I think 50 ? 100 times faster was the ball park figure they were talking about. In real terms, a flash drive would be able to load windows, and any other program for that matter, almost instantly.

The analogy that I like to think of is the game console. A Sony Playstation uses a DVD to store the game, where as a Gameboy DS takes cartridges. The difference in loading time is very noticeable ? the DS is instance, the Playstation takes a few seconds.

The iPod nano has the ability to run for around 24 hours on a single charge which demonstrates another marvellous feature of SSDs ? they use hardly any power. For instance, laptop battery life could be extended by perhaps 50% if this technology were incorporated.

The benefits of these new hard drives are clear and they seem to beat the conventional drive in every single way. Well, not quite. The cost of these drives is so expensive that to date they have been full utilized in military and aerospace applications. A SSD of reasonable size would probably cost several times the cost of the laptop it was going to be inside.

The good news is that the prices are falling as mass production increases. I wouldn't be surprised if in just 5-10 years hard drives with spinning platters go the way of the VCR, audio cassettes, and gramophones. Still if you miss them there's always the science museum...