FMS (Flash Memory Summit) is always an interesting event. What’s not to like lots of discussion about chip-based storage (flash) and SSD (Solid State Drives). The stuff is fast, it’s rugged, it hardly ever really dies on you, doesn’t use much power so your battery lasts longer and according to the guys (there still mostly guys) who crowd the sessions they are going to take over the world. Of course there’s a little problem or two. For the ordinary guy or gal or even the IT (information technology) department. It’s still more expensive than spinning disks and if everyone bought as much as they wanted/needed there wouldn’t enough to go around. We need a lot more production capacity and that costs time and money…lots of time, lots of money. There’s always next year and it will be good! [Read more…]