Overview

A solid-state drive (SDD) is a data storage device based on NAND Flash memory. Due to the price decline and the technology improvement of Flash chip, SSD products have become more and more mature and the price has become more affordable for the market and industry, which results in a significant growth in SSD shipment in 2011 and shows that the current technology and cost of SSD have met the market demand.

For most PC and laptop users, SSD is no longer unaffordable or a luxury when pursuing better efficiency. Instead, it has become one of the most adapted ways to improve computer efficiency.

The fast boot SSD brings to various operating systems is very noticeable: it takes merely 6 seconds for Ubuntu Linux and ten seconds or so for Windows 7 to go from BIOS to desktop. It also shortens the start-ups of most application programs and files to less than two seconds.

Moreover, benefiting from the fact that unlike the motor mechanism of traditional hard-disc, the mechanism of SSD is purely physical and electrical, laptops equipped with SSDs are immune to the data loss and hard-disk failure caused by users moving the laptops while the hard-disks are running. Because SSD does not require a magnetic disc or a motor, it is much lighter than a traditional hard-disk. One of the most eminent SSD applications is event data recorders: because of the technology maturity and price decline of SSD, SSD has contributed to the popularization of the event data recorders in the car markets over the recent years and is a much superior choice than traditional hard-disks to be adopted in event date recorders.

 

DRAMeXchange: Annual Review of SSD

In this year's annual review of SSD by DRAMeXchange, a research division of Trendforce, we test out 32 different 2.5-inch SSDs, including standard SSDs with affordable prices and high-speed SDDs, which are adopted by medium and small size companies and work stations, with several categories (SATA2 with 60GB and 100GB storage and SATA3 with over 100GB storage.)

SDDs are categorized based on their communication specifications and storage amounts to distinguish their differences. According to the survey by DRAMeXchange, the speed of data transmission is about 100MB/sec for traditional hard-disks and over 200MB/sec for mainstream SDDs. Due to the limit of its communication specifications, the maximum speed of data transmission of a SATA2 hard-disk is 300MB/sec. It is reasonable to adopt SATA3 model and the latest flash chips when producing a new SSD, which can increase the speed of data transmission to 600MB/sec.

Currently, the newly-launched PCs and notebooks, regardless of different platforms (Intel and AMD), are all compatible with SATA3 specifications. Now it is no longer a dream to equip your computers with a main storage device whose data transmission speed is above 500MB/sec, not to mention the affordable prices for medium and small size companies and work stations.

List of SSD Prodocts：

About The Storage Amounts of SSDs

The prices of 60-64GB SSDs have declined to $100-150; even the 64GB SSD, which is the cheapest among all the SSDs we test out, outperforms traditional hard-disks in terms of reading efficiency. Such an outperformance is attributed to the advantage its structure. With the pursuit of bigger storage amount, the storage amounts of traditional hard-disks have increased to 1 to 2TB.