Samsung banks on new flash disks

Samsung has designed a new system based on flash memory chips that could replace current hard disks.

The NAND-based solid-state disk (SSD) is designed for notebook PCs, tablet PCs and other mobile electronics, and Samsung says mass production will start in August.

The SDDs are based on memory chips but require less power and ensure better transfer rates than traditional solutions, reports Softpedia.

By replacing current mechanisms with SDD, the drives will have a five times lower power consumption rate, half the weight, reading and writing speeds of 57Mbps and 32Mbps respectively - indicating a 150% increase - and better stability and data protection. Other advantages include less heating and no noise.

For now, these SDD solutions are aimed at mobile systems used in industrial and military domains, but cheaper solutions aimed at home-users will also be available soon.

Start-up EnterpriseDB this week unveiled an open source-based database that it claims is comparable to, but less expensive than, products from Oracle.

EnterpriseDB 2005 (EDB2005), only available in beta, is based on the PostgreSQL database, which is a relational database management system that supports high-volume online transaction processing, InformationWeek reports.

EDB2005 supports applications written for Oracle through compatible SQL syntax, data types, triggers and native stored procedures. The company claims the product is faster in "typical transactional applications" than competitive open source products.

EDB2005 includes the database server, the RDBMS engine, a graphical console for developers and administrators, and connectors for access to the database from JDBC, ODBC, .NET, ESQL/C++, PHP, Perl and Python.

Concerns about identity theft are beginning to put people off shopping and banking online, reports BBC.

In a survey commissioned by software firm Intervoice, 17% of people said they had stopped banking online while 13% had abandoned Web shopping. Technologies such as online checkout services and credit card readers were pinpointed as potential ID risks.

Other findings include that 36% rank technologies such as credit card readers and online checkouts highest on their list of worries, 25% are worried about their paper receipts, and 16% are concerned about giving passwords out to friends and family.

Despite online concerns, it is an offline solution that is seen as the best way to tackle identity fraud, with 57% seeing ID cards as the best way to protect themselves against identity theft.