CES 2013 - At the Toshiba booth at Storage Visions 2013 we caught video of the difference in boot times between three different laptops. One laptop was outfitted with an SSD only, the second was outfitted with a standard HDD, and finally the third had Toshiba's new hybrid HDD with NAND onboard.

This type of HDD provides the speed of an SSD with the capacity of an HDD through intelligent data caching. The HDD is essentially a souped-up 5400RPM MK10ADBH combined with Toshiba's own 32nm SLC NAND technology. This provides low power consumption in conjunction with high performance.

The competition for the hybrid HDD market has heated up recently, with Seagate currently having the lead with the Momentus XT. Much of the reason for Seagate's success in this realm stems from the fact that they have had the only hybrid on the market. Now that Toshiba has entered the ring, and with Western Digital announcing its own hybrid at CES, look for this segment to heat up.

This competition should lead to further rapid advancement and lower prices for consumers.