First post, by Exploit
A big problem with old computers is connecting modern storage devices such as SSDs to them. Even if you manage to connect modern SSDs to an old computer using an IDE to SATA adapter or SATA controller for the PCI bus, you still have the problem that TRIM is usually not supported. This would require support for the ATA/ATAPI Command Set version 2 (short name: ACS-2) or later. And you can't get that with an IDE to SATA adapter on and old computer or with an old SATA controller in PCI version for old machines. Available SATA PCI controllers are usually too old for this. (See her for SATA PCI Controller with SiL3114 chipset Re: Silicon Image 3114 BIOS flash ) and motherboards whose IDE controllers support ACS-2 are so new that they usually already have native SATA connectors.
With phase change memory (PCM, In this context I now use the abbreviation PCM.), TRIM support would not be required. A PCM device may endure around 100 million write cycles. All that would be needed would be a PCM module with an 40 pin IDE connector at an affordable price. Since the software for old DOS computers usually doesn't require much storage space itself, you don't even need a large storage device. An IDE-based PCM storage device with 200 MiB to 3000 MiB storage capacity would be more than sufficient for DOS. It just needs to be affordable for lets say 55 to 100 dollars and work with all old IDE controllers, from ATA-1 to 8. This would still be significantly more expensive per megabyte than an SSD, but it would work and it doesn't require TRIM. Trim support would not be required for either the operating system or the IDE controller hardware. For a Windows 95/98/Me-based computer, larger storage devices would be necessary. But even here, 20 to 100 GiB could be sufficient.
PCM chips are currently still in development and are still very expensive, and the SSD market also seems to be the target. In order to be competitive with SSDs, you would have to move into price ranges where a gigabyte costs just a few cents. In the retro sector, however, this would not be necessary in my opinion. What's your opinion about that?
