What’s SSD?
SSD is a unique storage for PC or laptop. The first one was launched in 1991, it was available for commercial and industrial device. However, the price was extremely high and reached over $ 1000, the connector at that time was PCMCIA. Previous SSDs were using dynamic RAM, therefore, there were perfect for large server applications. Most RAM SSDs from the 1990s had power supply by battery, which can store content if power were off.
Along with the development of technology, SSDs massively adopt flash memory to be the important component. Also, the interface turned to PATA in 2006, it was gradually replacing hard drives. Relying on wear-leveling technology, SSDs with flash memory were able to offer longer lifespan and faster speed. This new SSD raised sales in consumer market, it strengthens its position in storage market till now. The latest SSDs get further update on the interface, now most of them are using SATA instead. It reduces the cost again and triggers a better performance.
The advantage of SSD
SSD delivers low latency, high durability, and high transfer speed. Due to the physical design, SSD has no moving parts. Therefore, no matter you shake or spin the device, there will be hard to get damage. Previously SSDs were acquiring DRAM memory chips, the price was greatly high. Today, most SSDs are with NAND flash, the lower cost leads them to be applied in lots of consumer devices.
In addition, an SSD has a design of endurance rating. It helps SSD to meet a harsh workload and enterprise requests. Meanwhile, it enables users to control the lifespan of SSD in their devices. The capacity of standard SSD can be up to 2TB, the transfer speed can hit 550MB/s. Thus, the boot time is quicker comparing to HDD.
An SSD needs less power to work, as it has no moving components. Then the power expense is low, it is energy efficiency when using it in laptops. Especially for mobile devices, users are always concerning by battery longevity, low power consumption is a big benefit. There is another superior part regarding the weight, SSDs are weighing less than HDDs. The compact design is suitable for working in portable devices such as tablets, laptops, and so on. Furthermore, SSDs nearly have no noise during the operation. It is thanks to the absence of moving parts.
The Types of SSD
Now there are two sorts of SSDs. One is SATA, another one is PCle NVMe. SATA is a main demand in consumer market. It has a cheaper cost and compatible performance. However, NVMe SSD is almost 10 times faster than SATA one. It is more like enterprise level. In fact, the bandwidth from NVMe is more than SATA, which will assist the devices to have a better performance in a heavier workflow.
Final Word
The price gap between SSDs and HDDs gets smaller, but the performance difference is huge. As if you expect a durable and high-performance storage, it is wise to upgrade your old disk by SSD. Besides it, SSDs come with wear leveling and SMART technology, which will monitor the operations of the drive. It alerts users if they get internal errors and advises people know its lifespan.