Solid State Disk For NAS

It seems as though solid-state memory technology is gaining ground nearly as fast as traditional spinning disk technology, though the spinners have the upper hand in capacity. Flash memory's role has so far been primarily grounded in portable, shock sensitive devices, but I wonder if a time will come when hard disk RPM will no longer be an issue because drives will no longer need moving parts. Moving toward a non-whirling future, Texas Memory Systems' NAS-250 network-attached solid state disk showed up this week. The NAS-250 has two fast Gigabit Ethernet ports and accesses files in microseconds instead of the yawn-inducing milliseconds needed in disk-based NAS devices. Texas says that both Gigabit Ethernet ports can service over 40,000 storage requests per second. The NAS-250 will support file sharing for UNIX and Windows and Texas thinks it would be a good fit for database servers, web servers, edge caching, and modeling and simulation apps. It has redundant and hot swappable power supplies, backup disk drives, and fans, along with redundant batteries that provide one hour of backup power. The NAS-250 will scale from 8GB to 32GB and Texas Memory Systems expects to start delivery of the device next month. If you can find time between stints of gambling while you're at Comdex (Las Vegas), you can take a look at the NAS-250 there.