Thought experiment: HDD with flash read-cache?

[GullLars]

I remember reading on storagesearch.com a couple of years ago that that samsung HDD-flash hybrid drive depended on Vista for usage of the flash component, and that it was poorly implemented. The tiny size of 256MB wouldn't do much good used in the way those reviews you linked seem to indicate.

A 4-8GB flash cache on the other hand is enough to cache all files on a W7 installation below 1MB, in addition to some hot files.

If i were to set the caching parameters by the simplest form of LBA read-access tracking filtering wich can be done entirely onboard the disk, i would set it to cache anything read at 4-16KB chunks in a random (or single sequential) access pattern, and then go on to caching the hottest LBA blocks in the 32-128KB range. And after that, cache anything read within 10-20 seconds of every (or most) power-on that would still fit in the rest of the cache.

EDIT: the added ca $20 for 8GB MLC flash would easily be justified by the added performance in 1-2TB 3,5" HDDs and 500GB+ 2,5" HDDs used for OS, programs, and games.