Samsung showed off a laptop at this year's CeBIT that uses 32GB of flash memory for storage. The drive packs 32GB of flash memory into a case the same size as a 1.8-inch hard drive. The prototype laptop that Samsung showed off was able to boot (the operating system was not mentioned) in 18 seconds versus 31 seconds for the laptop with a regular hard disk drive. Other benefits included durability to no moving parts and the fact that it is completely silent.

But for all these advantages, there is a major hurdle that needs to be overcome before SSD can reach mass market: price. Flash memory costs around $30 per gigabyte; the memory needed for the 32GB SSD drive works out to about $960, before any other costs are taken into account.