What is a Solid State Disk?
A solid state disk (SSD) is a memory storage device without moving parts that can be used in place of a traditional hard disk. There are several advantages to a solid state disk and only one real disadvantage: cost. However, as costs continue to fall, experts predict solid state disks will replace platter-driven disks in many applications by 2009. A solid state disk is made of memory chips and is both flash-based and non-volatile. Flash-based means that it uses flash technology to erase blocks of memory before writing to them. Therefore, solid state disks are also called flash drives. Non-volatile means that the disk does not require power to hold its contents. In other words, data is not lost when power is cut. There are many advantages to a solid state disk. It is far faster than a traditional hard disk, more rugged, can endure wider temperature fluctuations in the environment, does not heat up, is totally silent, is lighter, and uses very little power. All of these features combine
Conventional wisdom says that computer systems and networks are becoming faster and faster by orders of magnitude as time goes on. In terms of processor clock rates, this is largely true. Storage devices, however, are relatively stagnant. Storage speed- measured by seek time, operations per second, total bandwidth, and other rubrics- has increased at a snail’s pace compared to other aspects of computing. This difference has created a substantial performance gap over the years, and more often than not computer systems experience some kind of substantial performance bottleneck due to storage devices (See: “Why Disks are Obsolete” by Burleson Consulting). In high-demand networks, the performance gap is painfully obvious. All the fast servers in the world are wasted if storage can’t carry out its orders fast enough. And in situations where “hot-files” and databases are constantly read from or written to by multiple sources across a network, this bottleneck creates a crisis for the entire n
