Commercializing Chameleon

The cost of adding FRAM to a solid-state drive is insignificant, says Seoul National University's Sang Lyul Min. Solid-state drives go for US $1000 or more, 95 percent of which comes from the flash memory. "Today, price is the SSD's No. 1 issue," says Akira Minamikawa, vice president of iSupply Japan, in Tokyo. However, he believes that for 20 to 40 GB drives, the prices will eventually fall in line with hard drives as flash memory improves.

Ramtron International, in Colorado Springs, is currently the sole FRAM supplier. "So while there are no problems in commercializing the product, having no second source is a problem for drive manufacturers," admits Min. That's a problem that could prevent the hybrid from going mainstream, given FRAM's niche status, says Joseph Unsworth, a research director at Gartner, an information and technology advisory firm.