SOLID STATE DRIVES
Solid state storage devices store computer data on
non-volatile "flash" memory chips rather than by changing the surface
properties of a magnetic or optical spinning disk. With no moving parts solid
state drives (SSDs) -- are also very much the future for almost all forms of
computer storage.
Sometime in the second half of this decade, solid state
drives are likely to replace spinning hard disks in most computers, with
several manufacturers now offering hard-disk-replacement SSDs. These are often
very fast indeed, extremely robust and use very little power. As pictured
above, typically today most hard disk replacement SSDs are the same size -- and
hence a direct replacement for -- a 2.5" hard drive. They also usually
connect via a SATA interface.
Unfortunately the prices of solid state drives are currently
high, with the lowest capacity disks . At present SSDs are therefore generally
only being used in high-end PCs and laptops, and as a means of increasing
robustness, reducing noise, decreasing power consumption, and often
significantly decreasing boot-up times.
As a notable exception, for a couple of years some
ultramobile "netbook" computers and some low-power desktop computers
-- such as the Asus Eee PC -- used an SSD rather than a traditional hard drive,
and which was made cost-effective by limiting disk sizes to around 4-8GB.
Sadly, on netbooks this trend has now died out. However, the new Google
Chromebooks are SSD-based.
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