What Exactly Is The Apple Inc (AAPL) Fusion Drive?

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has already announced its Facebook-enabled iBooks platform, and has spent a significant chunk of its product release’s first hour discussing the iMac Desktop Computer and Mac Mini (seen on Apple’s Store here). While it’s easy to see why Tim Cook and Phil Schiller have been hyping the ever-impressive Retina display, the company’s senior VP announced something surprising today: the Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) Fusion Drive.

Jony Ive, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

No, its not a spaceship engine built for interstellar travel; the Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) Fusion Drive combines Flash and HDD memory formats into one unique system. Announced at the conclusion of Schiller’s speech about the iMac, the Fusion Drive offers 128 GB of flash storage and the choice between a 1 TB or 3 TB hard drive, with automatic integration into OS X Mountain Lion.

Now, it was stated that customers must hand-select the Fusion Drive when ordering their iMacs, which implies a higher price point, but no specifics have been offered yet. What we do know is that all of the software that is pre-installed within Mountain Lion can work on either memory option of the Fusion device, and that the OS itself decides which applications are best served on Flash or HDD. As the senior VP of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) stated himself: “you just use it, it works,” claiming that “in [photo] Aperture for example, you can get 3.5 times the speed of a photo import in Flash than on an HDD. With Fusion drive, you get almost the same speed as Flash, without having to do anything else.”

Essentially, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Fusion Drive gives its users the best of both worlds when it comes to memory options, giving them ease of use in the process. Continue checking back here for more updates on this situation, as the company’s new data storage device is sure to turn some heads in the tech world today.