The first time I saw Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the year was 2005 and I was in fourth grade. Since then, the world of tech design has shifted, but Star Wars and other sci-fi realms have maintained the gaze of the tech world, inspiring some of the quirkiest and most clever tech accessories known today. While getting inspired by science-fiction is no rare encounter, it’s so prevalent because, if executed well, science-fiction is one of the few aesthetic categories that manage to reel people into entirely different and unfamiliar worlds.

Sourcing his inspiration from sci-fi movies like Star Wars, Alex Casabò conceptualized in 3D, his own interpretation of what he calls, a “really fast sci-fi SSD,” bringing a traditional SSD and taking it to new heights, perhaps even new galaxies, with a distinct, rugged exterior and lightning-fast drive. Casabò’s SSD concept looks lived-in like it’s headed straight for Crait. SSDs, which rely on flash memory to keep things moving and storage processed, are known for their low read-access time and fast throughputs. Conversely, other storage devices like hard disks store a computer’s memory on mechanical hard drives and generally move a lot slower.

Opting for a more futuristic, cyberpunk aesthetic for his digital SSD conceptualization makes sense since faster speeds indicate technological advancements and go hand in hand with a future world that might look eerily familiar to sci-fi films we grew up watching. His SSD concepts come in three forms, 16 TB, 32 TB, or 64 TB, and come in orange, green, or blue. The translucent, rough-and-tough exterior for his SSD concepts resemble the technological hardware used by the dissidents who form the Rebel Alliance. The SSD’s interior components, the flash controller and flash memory chips, are also visible from the outside, which gives Casabò’s design a distinct look that only brings us closer to the sands of Jakku.

Designer: Alex Casabò