Advantages and disadvantages of solid state drives over HDD ... What are they ?! Solid-state drives, or SSDs, having appeared on the market relatively recently, despite their high cost, have managed to gain popularity among users who are interested in speed.
A solid state drive is a storage device based on memory chips. The SSD also includes a control controller. The memory on the basis of which solid-state drives work is divided into two types: flash and RAM.
Most often, SSDs are used in small devices (communicators, laptops, smartphones), where a significant requirement is the resistance of the drive to shock and vibration, as well as its small size. The use of solid state drives in a PC can significantly increase performance.
The popularity of SSDs is growing very quickly: their cost, although at the moment it is noticeably higher than HDD, is gradually decreasing; Some companies, such as the one that sold the hard drive business to Samsung to Seagate, have already abandoned HDD production altogether, switching to the development and creation of solid drives.
The history of the emergence and further development of SSD
Despite the fact that solid-state drives have become widespread only recently, the first prototype of such a storage medium was created back in 1978. The first semiconductor storage device based on RAM memory was developed by StorageTek (USA). Four years later, another American company, Cray, began using RAM-based SSDs in its Cray-1 and Cray X-MP supercomputers.
The first semiconductor flash drive was developed in 1995 by M-Systems (Israel).
Since 2005, laptops and netbooks, which included an SSD, have increasingly appeared on the market. The first company to launch a device with a 4GB solid state drive was ASUS. Gradually, the speed and volume of devices increased. In 2008, the developers of Mtron Storage Technology (South Korea) presented at an exhibition in Seoul a 128-gigabyte solid-state disk with write and read parameters of 240 MB / s and 260 MB / s, respectively. In 2009, OCZ developed a 1 terabyte SSD.
SSD advantages
The advantages of solid state drives are obvious. The absence of moving parts has led to their high mechanical resistance, fast reading of files, regardless of the location of their fragments, as well as absolutely noiseless operation. The read and write speed is many times faster than the bandwidth of the best HDD interfaces, including SATA II, SATA III and others.
The absence of magnetic disks made it possible to significantly reduce the size of the SSD, as well as to reduce the effect on it of external electromagnetic fields, which can easily harm hard drives and the information stored on them.
Also SSD is characterized by a wider temperature range and lower power consumption.
Disadvantages of modern SSDs
The key disadvantage of solid-state drives, due to which not many can afford to install them in a PC, is their high cost, which is directly proportional to their capacity. The price of the more common HDDs today depends solely on the platters included in their composition and increases much more slowly as their volume increases.
The main disadvantage of NAND SSDs (drives based on the use of non-volatile memory) is, first of all, the limited number of rewriting cycles: ten thousand for ordinary flash memory (MLC, Multi-level cell) and one hundred thousand for a more expensive type (SLC, Single-level cell). In order to prevent uneven wear, special circuits are built into the SSD: the controller saves information about which blocks are the least rewritable and, if necessary, begins to use them more actively. The number of cycles of the RAM SSD and the latest FRAM technology is almost unlimited, they will be enough for 40 years of continuous use.
Impossibility of information recovery
Solid-state drives do not allow information recovery due to the use of the TRIM command, so all recovery utilities become useless. In addition, the information on the SSD becomes irretrievably lost if overvoltage or overvoltage occurs. If only the controller board burns out in hard drives most often, the solid state drive burns out completely. A hardware failure of an SSD due to the failure of a controller chip or flash memory will lead to the fact that information will be lost beyond recovery.
SSD and Windows operating system selection
The acceleration of SSD wear is also affected by the use of outdated and even a number of up-to-date operating systems that do not take into account their specificity. A decrease in the life of solid-state drives due to the operation of some OS services is due to the fact that they are designed only to work with HDD,
Therefore, they use technologies on SSDs that speed up the work of hard drives, but do not have any positive effect on the speed of solid-state drives, but, on the contrary, reduce their service life.
In the Windows family, SSD optimization was introduced only starting with the seventh version. On hard drives, Windows 7 does not use defragmentation or the Superfetch and ReadyBoost technologies required to speed up reads and writes to hard drives. Previous versions of Windows, including the relatively recent Vista OS, require additional tweaks to reduce wear on the SSD. First of all, you need to disable defragmentation, which still has no effect on the performance of solid-state drives.
Configuring Windows 7 for an SSD
In order to prevent the rapid wear of the SSD, you should disable some services and operations in the system.
First of all, you should disable the use of a paging file in the system, which is designed to store temporary data, which is necessary when there is a lack of RAM. However, writing and rewriting so often to an SSD will cause memory cells to wear out quickly. Therefore, if your memory is more than 4 GB, the best solution is to disable the paging file. If you have less than 4GB of memory, the easiest way is to move the paging file to your hard drive or add more RAM.
Indexing and caching an SSD is completely unnecessary because the SSD is already very fast.
Due to the fact that direct access of the SSD to files is very fast, defragmentation is unnecessary, moreover, it only harms the cells of the SSD.
Other operating system components that have become unnecessary after installing it on an SSD are Prefetch and SuperPrefetch, which are designed to speed up the initial loading and launch of programs.
To disable these services, open the Windows Registry and change the EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch values to zero.
SSD and alternative operating systems
TRIM support for solid state memory was introduced in Mac OS X in version 10.7 (Lion). In 2010, Apple launched the Air computers, which included solid-state memory. Initially, at the request of the buyer, the SSD could be replaced with a regular hard drive, however, starting in 2010, the company completely abandoned the use of HDDs in this line to reduce the size of the computer case, as well as reduce its weight. The Air range ranges from 64GB to 512GB.
In 2012, a new flash-based MacBook Pro went on sale. Optionally, the computer can be installed up to 768 GB of flash memory.
TRIM support for SSDs in Linux operating systems appeared starting with kernel version 2.6.33. In the drive mount settings, specify the "discard" option.
SSD vs HDD: which to choose?
Nowadays, solid state drives are increasingly gaining market share from hard drives. And although it is too early to talk about the onset of the period of the final transition to SSD and HDD withdrawal from the sale, it becomes clear that at some point this will become inevitable. Those who have installed a solid-state drive as a system drive have already seen a difference in performance, which is noticeable even without using special tests.
Flash storage features fast access times, high data transfer rates and improved performance, which makes working with the operating system and installed applications much faster. In addition, SSD is characterized by absolutely silent operation, reliability and low power consumption.
At the moment, there are many solid state drives from various manufacturers on the component market, so choosing the best option among them is not so easy. However, the speed of any SSD model, even the slowest and cheapest, is many times faster than that of a hard drive.
Let's compare each of the technical parameters of solid state drives and hard drives separately.
Performance
Nearly every SSD is two to three times faster than a traditional hard drive in terms of communication speed. Launching programs and the operating system, exiting hibernation or standby mode, installing applications, working with files (copying, archiving, unzipping) is much faster on solid-state drives.
To determine the higher performance of an SSD, you don't even need to take any measurements, as it is easy to notice even "by eye". The software starts up much faster and the operating system runs smoothly as well. Especially noticeable is the speed of going into and out of standby or hibernation mode.
SSDs are a great choice for users looking for speed.
Comparison of HDD and SDD performance
When we benchmark one of the current best 3TB 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda XT HDDs and the previous generation Samsung 470 Series SSD, it becomes clear how noticeably the difference is between hard drives and SSDs.
Futuremark PCMark 7 mimics typical computer operation and demonstrates that in virtually all applications, an SSD performs a task three to four times faster than a hard drive. At the same time, this test takes into account the system performance, taking into account the influence of the CPU and the video card, which allows you to see a picture that is almost the same as that created during normal use.
The only exceptions where HDD and SDD scores are nearly equal are working with video in Windows Movie Maker and loading Windows Media Center.
The most striking example, when a user can see and appreciate the speed of a storage medium, is the transfer and copying of data. On older computers, this time can take such a long period that the user is forced to sit in front of the screen and wait for the file operations to be completed.
Comparing three media, SSD, 7200 rpm HDD and 5400 rpm HDD, shows just how much faster solid state drives are. In this testing, files were copied and transferred from one logical disk to another, which led to the fact that the media read and wrote data at the same time.
As you can see, the speed of an SSD when working with files and archives is several times higher than the capabilities of a hard drive.
This test allows you to determine how noticeable the performance of the SSD will be when solving the daily tasks that the user constantly faces. Two types of programs were selected for testing: 1) those that are most often used by users, 2) large packages, the installation of which is usually very time-consuming.
Testing has shown that the installation speed of applications on an SSD is two or three times faster than an HDD. The only exceptions are Acronis and Office 2007.
The advantage of SSDs remains even when launching applications, although in this case the time period is so small that it is unlikely to be very noticeable to the user.
File size and storage capacity
If you need a storage medium for storing large amounts of information, such as videos or films, then it would be much better to opt for a hard disk. Buying an SSD to store files on it is an unnecessary luxury, since the cost of solid-state drives is noticeably higher and, moreover, directly depends on its volume. Even the smallest 128GB model is very expensive, while a 500GB hard drive can be purchased at a very low price.
However, if you plan to use an SSD as a system one, then the currently minimum volume of 128 GB will be enough for you. This volume is quite enough to create a working system where Windows 7 will be installed, the necessary programs and even a few games. And for storing multimedia files and archives, you can install an additional HDD. If you are going to install an SSD in your laptop, you can purchase an external hard drive to store your files.
Durability and resistance to shock and vibration
An important parameter of an SSD, which favorably distinguishes it from hard drives, is its reliability in use, which is ensured by the fact that the solid-state drive is absolutely insensitive to shock and vibration. This is especially true for laptops that you often have to carry with you. Such devices are often subjected to shocks, and sometimes only the built-in accelerometer, which turns off the HDD when it falls, saves it from data loss or breakdown.
Using SDD allows you to forget about trying not to shake your laptop. For example, when the device just begins to go into sleep mode (and at this time it is very actively writing data to the media), you can already put it in your bag. If you do this with a laptop with a built-in HDD, then the hard drive will be easily damaged.
Durability of SSD and HDD
At the same time, SDDs still outperform hard drives in terms of their durability. Inexpensive first-generation SSDs installed, for example, on EEE PCs, have already begun to fail gradually. And if it is almost impossible to predict the mechanical wear of the HDD, then solid-state drives have a limited number of rewriting cycles, which is currently its main drawback.
It is assumed that the development of technologies will lead to the fact that non-volatile memory will be made of other materials, such as, for example, FeRam, but so far such drives are not yet on sale. In 2014, HP plans to begin selling drives based on ReRAM technology.
Physical dimensions of both media
For some users, a significant advantage of SSDs is their light weight and size. Solid-state media are noticeably smaller than hard drives, which, firstly, makes it possible to significantly reduce the size of the device (this is especially true for laptops and netbooks), and secondly, it allows you to place more drives in the PC case rack.
Comparison of SDD vs HDD cost
Price is the parameter by which SSDs are hopelessly inferior to hard drives. Modern solid state drives cost three to four times the price of an HDD that has three times the capacity.
Whether it is worth spending money on performance and speed is up to you. In our opinion, this makes sense only if your work with a PC or laptop is constantly and active. In this case, you will save not only time, but also nerves, getting rid of the annoyance associated with the fact that the system and applications are very slow.
What to choose for?
Although SSD technologies are developing very actively, it is too early to talk about the time when they will completely replace hard drives. Solid state drives are unmatched for better performance and speed when used as system drives, but they are noticeably inferior to HDDs when it comes to file storage.
For most tasks faced by home PC users, a complete set with two media is perfect: an SSD, where the operating system should be placed, as well as executable files and program caches, and a large HDD for storing movies, music, photos and documents.
The budget version of the configuration can do just fine without the use of solid-state drives, while computers that work exclusively with SSDs, due to their unreasonably high cost, are extremely rare.
I'll start right away with the fact that I, most likely, a backward person ... The fact is that although I have long known about the existence of so-called solid-state hard drives, but due to the widespread myths about their short service life, high cost and I bought an SSD drive for my personal computer on small volumes only a year and a half ago.
And I regretted ... that I had not bought it earlier. After buying an SSD, I immediately began to search the Internet for information about what you can and cannot do when using such a device. In this article, I tried to comprehensively answer all possible questions about SSD drives.
What is an SSD drive?
SSD is a drive for storing digital information, which is similar in principle to the well-known flash drive. There are no mechanical parts in its design. The abbreviation SSD stands for Solid State Disk.
Initially, SSD drives were intended for military use. Today, everyone can use SSDs instead of the usual magnetic hard drives. SSD drives are used in desktop computers to improve performance.
I must say right away that when you buy a solid-state hard drive to replace your old conventional magnetic hard drive, you will immediately noticeably feel the effect of increasing performance. This statement is true for both Windows and Linux. Moreover, the effect of the performance gain will be higher than from replacing the processor or increasing the amount of RAM.
I hope that none of the readers uses the old Windows XP on their computer. Otherwise, along with installing the SSD, you will have to make a number of operating system settings to optimize the work with the SSD.
But starting with Windows 7, the operating system itself detects the presence of a solid-state drive during installation and optimizes the settings for working with it. If you install Linux on an SSD, then I will definitely say that Ubuntu 10.04 will also make the necessary settings to work with an SSD in automatic mode.
Direct
What is a hybrid hard drive?
When installed in one enclosure with magnetic HDD disks, a hybrid hard disk drive (SSHD) is formed. They use flash memory as a cache. This makes it possible to get all the advantages of flash memory (random access at high speed) and save an affordable price for storing large amounts of information.
What should you never do with an SSD?
Under no circumstances should you defragment. First, for SSD drives, this is simply not necessary due to the principle of operation. Instant access to data in SSD drives is provided due to the absence of a mechanical head, so the need for defragmentation is completely negated. Secondly, defragmentation is not only not beneficial, but also harmful, shortening the lifespan of the SSD due to unnecessary and useless overwriting of information.
The SSD is not worth formatting. This operation for solid-state drives is simply meaningless and harmful. When using a solid state drive, simply delete unneeded files.
Do not fill the solid-state drive with data to its fullest. A solid-state disk should always have about 20% of the free space of the total disk or logical volume. This free space will be used to replace memory cells that have failed due to wear and tear. You can do a tricky thing: leave 20% of the disk space unpartitioned, so as not to accidentally fill them with information.
Dispelling myths about SSD drives
High cost and low volume. Yes, indeed, for three thousand Russian rubles you can buy a solid-state drive with a volume of only 120 GB or a magnetic hard disk with a volume of up to 1 TB. The difference in cost per 1 MB of information is noticeable. But the difference is also noticeable in the speed, which is about five times higher for the SSD. In addition, 120 GB is more than enough for installation on one SSD-drive and Windows 10, and Ubuntu at the same time - tested on personal experience.
Short service life. This thesis, I'll tell you frankly, is complete nonsense. Of course, flash memory cells wear out over time, but even though a solid-state drive works on the principle of a flash drive we all know, it is much "smarter" than the latter. In theory, manufacturers give SSDs a standard three-year warranty, but in practice, SSDs have a ten-year warranty.
SSD advantages
Disadvantages of SSD drives
High price. The price for 1 MB is several times higher than that of magnetic hard drives. This is undoubtedly the main drawback. But do not be upset because of him. After all, an SSD is needed exclusively for loading the operating system, for which even 60 GB is quite enough. Plus, SSD prices are getting lower and lower.
Overwrite cycle limit. Well, I have already said that this limit is very rubber. Even the simplest and most affordable solid-state drive can withstand about 11,000 rewriting cycles, which is about five years of use. SSDs made with new technologies have a significantly higher rewrite cycle limit. So, a RAM SSD or FRAM has an almost unattainable resource of 40 years!
Inability to recover damaged information. If in a magnetic hard disk during a sharp power surge only the controller that can be replaced burns out, then in SSD disks the controller is attached directly to the board, together with which the entire drive burns out.
Small capacity. Typical capacities for most SSDs range from 128GB to 512GB. Devices with a volume of more than 1 TB are almost never on sale. A very controversial flaw (see the first point).
Scope of SSD drives
Solid state drives are gradually starting to be used in all areas. Most often these are compact devices like smartphones or tablets with a memory capacity of 18 to 64 GB.
FOR REFERENCE.
What is a magnetic hard drive?
Magnetic hard drives are often called hard drives and are abbreviated as HDD, which stands for Hard Disk Drive. Data is written to the hard disk by reversing the magnetization of cells on mechanical rotating magnetic platters.
Above and between the plates, the so-called carriage moves at high speed, on which the reading head is located. During the rotation, noise is generated and heating occurs. Operating hard drives are very poorly protected from vibrations, shocks and drops, which can cause the carriage to collide with the platters, eventually leading to drive failure and data corruption.
That's all. Good luck with your SSD drives.
The emergence of a relatively new storage technology on the market raises many questions from users. What is SSD? Should I put it instead of the usual hard drive? Is he as good as they say he is? After reading this article to the end, you will answer all the questions posed, which will allow you to decide whether you need to change something in the way your computer works.
Let's start with the concept: An SSD is a solid state drive that uses NAND memory, which does not require electricity to store data. In fact, an SSD is a capacious flash drive that has a high speed of writing and reading information.
Comparison with HDD
To draw parallels with a conventional hard drive, you first need to go a little deeper into theory and see how the HDD works.
An HDD is a collection of metal disks that rotate on a spindle. Information is written onto the surface of the discs by a small mechanical head. When you copy something, create a new file or run a program, the head moves, looking for a place to write. For clarity, imagine a vinyl record - only instead of a needle there will be a mechanical read head.
Solid state drives do not have any moving mechanical parts.
Other advantages of SSD:
- Quick response to user actions.
- Silent work.
- Low power consumption (half that of HDD).
- No overheating.
These are just the main advantages of solid state drives that the user can "feel". However, the question of which is better than HDD or SSD continues to be asked by many users, so let's compare the characteristics of these two types of drives:
- The speed of the SSD is higher, since the stage of the mechanical search for the right place on the disk surface disappears. The data access time is reduced by 100 times - the system installed on the SSD literally starts to fly compared to using the HDD.
- The absence of mechanical moving parts contributes to the silent operation of the drive and an increase in its lifespan. HDD most often fails due to mechanical damage - SSD does not have such a problem.
- The SSD temperature is always kept at an optimal level, even if it is not cooled with a cooler. The HDD, on the other hand, overheats without cooling, which leads to software and hardware problems.
But let's be objective: SSDs also have disadvantages. First of all, this is the price, which is still quite high and directly depends on the volume. Another problem is the limitation on the number of rewrite cycles. HDD can be filled with data and cleaned up as much as necessary; SSD has a limitation, but in practice it is difficult to achieve.
All SSDs are warranted for 3-5 years, but they usually last much longer, so don't focus on those numbers.
If you cannot choose between SSD and HDD, then there is a hybrid option - SSHD. Such drives combine the advantages of both technologies, but you will notice an increase in operating speed only when the operating system boots. Data recording and reading will be performed at the same level as that of HDD, therefore such hybrids are not very popular among users.
Selection rules
So, you have decided that it is time to abandon the outdated hard drive and install a solid-state drive in your computer - you figured out why you need it and what advantages it has over HDD. However, this raises another question: how to choose an SSD?
The stores offer drives in different form factors, controllers and prices, so it's hard to figure out right off the bat which one is right for you. In order not to feel hesitant in a conversation with a consultant who will probably want to sell an SSD at a higher price, try to choose a drive according to the parameters below.
Volume
As already noted, one of the main disadvantages of SSDs is the price, which is rigidly tied to the volume of the drive. The minimum capacity today is 60 GB. If we consider that the installed Windows 7 requires 16-20 GB, depending on the bit capacity, it becomes clear that 60 GB is enough only for installing the system and a dozen necessary programs for the operation.
If you want to burn games and heavy graphics applications like Corel or Photoshop to SSDs, consider drives with a capacity of over 120GB.
Speed
Any drive (SSD is no exception here) has two performance indicators: writing and reading. The higher the values, the better, but remember that the specifications usually indicate the maximum speed. The real meaning can only be found in practice with the help of special programs. If the drive has been on the market for a long time, then on the Internet you can try to find its speed tests from users.
Interface and form factor
Most modern SSD drives are manufactured in a 2.5 form factor with support for the SATA 3 interface. But there may be other, more expensive options:
- PCI card that plugs directly into the motherboard slot.
- External SSD storage.
- Disk with mSATA interface for installation in laptops and compact computers.
As for the interface: all new SSDs come with a SATA 3 interface, but if you have an older controller (first or second generation) installed on your motherboard, you can still connect the drive. However, there is one limitation: the baud rate is determined by the smallest value. That is, if you connect SATA 3 to SATA 2, then the speed will be determined by the SATA 2 bandwidth.
HDD for computers have a form factor of 3.5 inches, then to install an SSD 2.5 you will need a special adapter, which is often called a "sled". It is a small metal shelf that is suspended at the place where the disk is installed.
By the way, using a special adapter, you can install an SSD instead of a DVD in a laptop. Many users take out an unused drive and replace it with a solid state drive, onto which the operating system is then installed. The standard laptop hard drive is completely cleaned up at the same time and then used as storage for personal files.
Memory and controller
There are three types of memory that differ in the number of bits of information in one cell - SLC (1 bit), MLC (2 bits) and TLC (3 bits). The first type is outdated and is practically not used now, so if you see it in the characteristics, pass by such a drive.
MLC is the most common type of memory at the moment, choose it. It has its drawbacks, but there is no adequate alternative yet, since TLC is just beginning to appear on the SSD market and is still very expensive.
The situation is similar with controllers: the most popular among manufacturers and widespread among users is SandForce technology, which increases disk performance by compressing data before writing.
But SandForce controllers have one drawback that may seem significant to someone: if the drive fills with information to the limit, then after clearing it, the write speed does not return to its original state, that is, it becomes lower. However, this problem can be solved simply: do not fill the memory to the last byte, and the speed will not drop.
There are other, more expensive options: Intel, Indilinx, Marvell. If the budget allows, it is better to look at SSDs with controllers from these companies.
Manufacturer
The last parameter that requires your attention is the manufacturer. Of course, on various forums you can find many posts about which is better to choose Kingston or, say, Silicon Power, since they specialize in the production of drives of different types.
However, this is not entirely true: there are far fewer companies that actually produce NAND flash memory than there are brands on the market. Own production (and development department) have:
- Intel.
- Samsung.
- SanDisk.
- Crucial.
OCZ, for example, did not have any developments until recently and only recently acquired the controller manufacturer Indilinx. Therefore, it is better to pay attention to the above characteristics, and keep the manufacturers in mind last.
Working with a solid state drive
After a successful purchase and successful installation of the system on an SSD, you turn on the computer and be surprised at how quickly everything started to work. To keep this agility as long as possible, follow these simple rules for using solid state drives:
- Install a system that supports the TRIM command (Windows 7 and above, Mac OS X 10.6.6, Linux 2.6.33).
- Try not to fill the disk completely - the write speed will decrease and will not recover (relevant for the SandForce controller).
- Store your personal files on the HDD. Do not remove the hard drive if it is working - store music, movies, photos and other data on it, access to which does not require high speed.
- Increase the amount of RAM and avoid using the paging file if possible.
By following these simple guidelines, you will extend the lifespan of your solid state drive and avoid premature slowdowns in its performance.
The abbreviation HDD - hard-disk drive - many have already remembered and understand that this is a hard drive. But what is SSD - a new acronym that has been used more often than HDD in recent years? Read about it in our article.
SSD: decryption
SSD stands for solid-state drive and is translated into Russian as "solid state drive" or, less accurately, "solid state drive". This acronym hides a new storage technology that is more advanced than traditional hard drives.
SSD storage: what is it?
So what is an SSD drive? The main feature of such a drive is the absence of moving parts. In conventional hard drives, data is stored on rotating platters, and this rotation causes a number of disadvantages: firstly, it slows down the reading of data, secondly, it accelerates wear and tear of the drive and makes it more vulnerable to shock, and thirdly, it generates noise at work.
Nothing rotates in an SSD - data is stored here in flash memory, but written and erased using electrical charges. This makes SSDs very fast, they don't make any sounds, and they can withstand bumps and falls more easily.
True, this technology has its drawbacks. SSDs cost significantly more than hard drives of comparable capacity. In addition, the specifics of flash technology imposes a limit on the number of rewriting cycles, so in theory SSDs can fail earlier than hard drives, although in practice modern solid-state drives are quite able to successfully withstand the average lifespan of a typical user computer.
What is an SSD for
Since a solid-state drive, as mentioned above, is not the cheapest pleasure, it is not worth thoughtlessly buying it to replace a regular hard drive. For storing large amounts of data that does not require high read speeds, SSDs are still not the best choice. You should not use it for those files that are repeatedly overwritten during the day, otherwise the life of the drive will quickly come to an end.
It is best to install an operating system on the SSD - then it will work much faster. Both applications and games will benefit from this, for which a high speed of reading data from a drive is important. Read about how to install a solid state drive in our article. And for storing files, you should equip your computer with a second disk - a traditional HDD.
Some well-known manufacturers have already switched to solid state drives completely, for example Samsung sold its hard drive business to Seagate.
There are also so-called hybrid hard drives, which have appeared, among other things, due to the current, proportionally higher cost of solid state drives. Such devices combine in one device a hard disk drive (HDD) and a solid-state drive of a relatively small volume, as a cache (to increase the performance and life of the device, reduce power consumption).
So far, such drives are used mainly in portable devices (laptops, cell phones, tablets, etc.).
The history of development
Currently, Intel, Kingston, Samsung Electronics, SanDisk, Corsair, Renice, OCZ Technology, Crucial, and ADATA are the most notable companies that are intensively developing the SSD direction in their activities. In addition, Toshiba is showing its interest in this market.
Architecture and Functioning
NAND SSD
Usage-based drives non-volatile memory (NAND SSD), appeared relatively recently, but due to a much lower cost (from $ 1 per gigabyte), they began to confidently conquer the market. Until recently, they were significantly inferior to traditional storage devices - hard disks - in write speed, but they made up for this with a high speed of information retrieval (initial positioning). Solid-state drives are already being released with read and write speeds that are many times greater than the capabilities of hard drives. They are characterized by relatively small size and low power consumption.
RAM SSD
These drives are built to use volatile memory (the same as that used in the RAM of a personal computer) is characterized by ultra-fast reading, writing and information retrieval. Their main disadvantage is their extremely high cost. Used primarily to speed up large database management systems and powerful graphics stations. These drives are usually equipped with batteries to preserve data in the event of a power loss, and more expensive models are equipped with backup and / or online copying systems. An example of such storage devices is I-RAM. Users with sufficient RAM can organize a virtual machine and place its hard disk in RAM and evaluate the performance.
Disadvantages and Benefits
disadvantages
Advantages
- No moving parts, hence:
- Complete absence of noise;
- High mechanical resistance;
- Stability of the reading time of files regardless of their location or fragmentation;
- High read / write speed, often surpassing the bandwidth of the hard disk interface (SAS / SATA II 3 Gb / s, SAS / SATA III 6 Gb / s, SCSI, Fiber Channel, etc.);
- Low power consumption;
- Wide operating temperature range;
- Both the storage devices themselves and their production technologies have a great modernization potential.
- Lack of magnetic disks, hence:
- Much less sensitivity to external electromagnetic fields;
- Small dimensions and weight; (no need to make a heavy body for shielding)
Microsoft Windows and PCs of this platform with solid state drives
Windows 7 introduces a special optimization to work with solid state drives. If you have SSDs, this operating system works differently with SSDs than with conventional HDDs. For example, Windows 7 does not use defragmentation, Superfetch, ReadyBoost, or other read-ahead techniques to speed up the loading of applications from regular HDDs to SSDs.
The SSD drive is used by Acer tablets - Iconia Tab W500 and W501 models, Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 running Windows 7.
Mac OS X and Mac computers with solid state drives
On June 11, 2012, a new 15-inch MacBook Retina was introduced, based on flash memory, which optionally can be installed with 768 GB of flash memory.
Development prospects
The main disadvantage of SSD drives - the limited number of rewriting cycles - with the development of technologies for the manufacture of non-volatile memory will be eliminated by manufacturing according to other physical principles and from other materials, for example, FeRam. By 2013, the company plans to start retailing drives built using ReRAM (resistive random-access memory) technology.
see also
- Hybrid hard drive
Notes (edit)
Links
- HDD is dead, long live SSD? Critical review from Mobi magazine, 15.08.2007
- SSD drives based on NAND memory: technologies, principle of operation, varieties, 06/28/2010
- Test of four SSDs by Team from TestLabs.kz
| Solid State Drives (SSD) | |
|---|---|
| Key terminology | Encryption · ECC · Flash file system · Flash Memory - SLC / MLC · Flash memory controller · Garbage collection · IOPS · MB / s · Over-provisioning · Secure erase · TRIM command · Wear leveling · Write amplification |
| Flash drive manufacturers | Hynix · Intel · Micron · Samsung · Toshiba · Kingston |
| Controllers | |
| SSD manufacturers | List of solid state drive manufacturers |
| Interfaces | SATA SAS USB PCIe NVM Express |
| Associated organizations | INCITS · JEDEC / JC-64.8 · NVMHCI · SATA-IO · SFF Committee · SNIA · SSSI · T10 / SCSI · T11 / FC · T13 / ATA |
| Personal computer components | |
|---|---|
