SOLID STATE DRIVE (SSD) - A NON-VOLATILE NAND FLASH MEMORY

INTRODUCTION

A Solid-state drive (SSD) also called a semiconductor storage device, a solid-state device or a solid-state disk is a non-volatile memory system that emulates a magnetic hard disk drive (HDD). SSD depends on flash memory chips to store data. It does not contain moving parts. With proper design, SSD provides high data transfer rates, low access time, improved tolerance to shock and vibration, and reduced power consumption. The improved performance and durability outweigh the higher cost of an SSD relative to an HDD for some applications. SSD uses NAND based flash memory or DRAM to store data.

HDDs store their data on spinning metal platters, and whenever computer wants to access data, a little needle – like component called the head moves to the data’s position and provides it to the computer. Writing data to a HDD works in a similar fashion, where parts are constantly moving. SSD process seems a bit more direct and efficient, speed is the primary advantage of an SSD over a traditional HDD.

SSDs store data permanently inside an integrated circuit, typically using flash memory. The flash memory inside an SSD means data is written, transferred, and erased electronically and silently — SSDs don’t have the moving parts found inside mechanical hard-disk drives (HDDs). Without the moving parts, SSDs are fast and quiet, but they have a high price tag compared to HDDs.

SSD System board

THE NEED FOR SSD

In a nutshell, hard disk drives (HDDs) can be seen as electromechanical devices because the information is stored on a spinning disk, covered with ferromagnetic material. A motor inside hard disk, drives the spinning disk while a moving actuator arm has to tightly control the position of the magnetic head in charge of writing and reading to/from the storage media. All those moving parts meant that HDDs were the likeliest computer hardware component to fail. Also, the fact that there is a rotating disk implies that random access is limited by the mechanical movement of the disk. Reaching a different area of the spinning plate in less than a millisecond is definitely tough. Recent application software such as financial transactions, data mining, machine learning, and cloud computing need very fast access to the stored data. Unfortunately, HDDs are not best fit for them. Moreover, the mechanical parts pose a major constraint on reducing the HDD form factor and they also represent a major source of power consumption.

Internal view of the main components of a typical HDD

Solid State Drive adoption began with PC enthusiasts and in high-performance technology areas, where the extremely low access times and high throughput of SSDs justified the higher cost. But they have since become the standard type of storage drive used in lower-cost mainstream laptops and PCs.

The solid-state drives work completely differently from hard disk drive. They use integrated circuits and a simple memory chip — called NAND flash memory, which has no moving parts and near-instant access times.

SSDs store data in semiconductor cells. SSDs also offered extremely fast data storage and retrieval, are typically more resistant to physical shock, run silently, are smaller and lighter than HDDs, and have higher input/output rates and lower latency, giving computer manufacturers more design flexibility.

SSD NAND Flash Memory Cells

Smartphones and tablets have played a key role in looking for something different in terms of storage media from HDDs, because portable applications absolutely need less power-hungry and physical lighter storage device sizes.

It’s highly recommended that SSD storage media is one of the good options to choose when it comes to system upgrades in terms of speed performance increase. Solid State Drives also consumes less power of computing device compared to Hard Disk Drives.

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