Today at WinHEC, Microsoft and Samsung revealed their hybrid hard drive, designed for use with the next-gen version of Windows (currently codenamed Longhorn). The HHD combines standard hard drive technology with Samsung's OneNAND flash memory, which will replace the standard 8-32MB cache memory on current drives. The 1 Gigabit flash memory has much faster read/write speeds, so using that as the buffer will increase performance. Other benefits include less spinning of the drive (meaning less power consumption; great for laptops) and faster boot times. Samsung will ship the HHD in large quantities in late 2006.