Solid state drive
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This article discusses the characteristics of the solid state drive, its origins as a solid state disk for mission-critical applications, technological advances in NAND flash memory that are now making the solid state drive cost-effective for mobile computing in enterprise and consumer electronics markets, and its benefits over the hard disk drive.
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[edit] Reliable data storage with non-volatile memory
A flash-based solid state drive is primarily a data storage device for use in mobile computing such as notebook PCs and sub-notebooks in the enterprise and consumer electronics space, desktop servers, point of service systems and other applications that traditionally use a hard disk drive.
A solid state drive is based on non-volatile memory instead of the spinning platter and mechanical head found in a conventional hard disk drive. With no moving parts, a solid state drive eliminates seek time, latency and other electro-mechanical delays and failures associated with a conventional hard disk drive.
[edit] Origins of the solid state disk
msystems ([1]) was the first company to introduce flash-based solid state disks in 1995. Since then, they have been used successfully as hard disk drive replacements by the military and aerospace industries, as well as other mission-critical applications that require the exceptional mean time between failure (MTBF) rates that solid state disks achieve based on their ability to withstand extreme shock, vibration and temperature ranges.
[edit] NAND flash cost and capacity considerations
Until recently, however, solid state disks were too costly for mobile computing. As flash manufacturers transition from NOR flash to single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash and most recently to multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash to maximize silicon die usage and reduce associated costs, "solid state disks" are now being more accurately renamed "solid state drives" - they have no disks but function as drives - for mobile computing in the enterprise and consumer electronics space. This technology trend is accompanied by an annual 50% decline in raw flash material costs while capacities continue to double at the same rate. As a result, flash-based solid state drives are becoming increasingly popular in markets such as notebook PCs and sub-notebooks for enterprises, Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPC), and Tablet PCs for the healthcare and consumer electronics sectors.
[edit] Advantages of solid state drive over hard disk drive
The solid state drive provides major advantages in the mobile computing space over the hard disk drive:
- Boosts operating performance up to 2 times for operating system boot and up to 4 times for application launch/runtime
- Boosts input/out per second (IOPS) performance up to 100 times
- Maintains fixed performance that does not deteriorate as the media fills up
- Delivers up to 50% power savings to extend battery life
- Improves reliability by its ability to endure extreme shock, vibration and temperatures
- Improves mean time between failure (MTBF) rates up to 10 times
- Reduces heat dissipation
- Reduces weight by up to 50%
- Completely eliminates spin-up and operational noise
