What is a solid state hard disk?
Solid State Disk (SSD) is composed of a control chip and a flash memory chip. Simply speaking, it is a hard disk made of a solid state electronic storage chip array. Its interface specifications and definitions, functions and usage methods are identical to those of ordinary hard disks, and the product shape and size are identical to those of ordinary hard disks. The storage unit is responsible for storing data, and the control unit is responsible for reading and writing data. It has the advantages of high speed, durability, shock resistance, no noise and light weight. Widely used in military, vehicle, industrial control, video monitoring, network monitoring, network terminal, power, medical, aviation, navigation equipment and other fields.
Benefits of SSD solid state hard disks:
Benefit 1:
Quick start, no motor accelerates the process of rotation.
Benefit 2:
Relatively fixed reading time. Since the addressing time is independent of the data storage location, disk fragmentation does not affect the reading time.
Benefit 3:
Quick random reading without head, minimal read delay. According to tests, it takes only 10 seconds for both computers to start up a notebook with a solid state hard disk and 31 seconds for a notebook with a conventional hard disk on the same computer configuration, nearly three times the difference.
Benefit 4:
DRAM-based solid state hard disks write very fast.
Benefit 5:
No noise. Because there is no mechanical motor and fan, the noise value at work is 0 dB.
Benefits 6:
Low-capacity flash-based solid-state hard disks consume less energy and heat in the working state.
Benefit 7:
The operating temperature range is larger. Typical hard disk drives only work in the range of 5 to 55 degrees Celsius. While most solid-state hard disks can operate at temperatures ranging from -10 to 70 degrees Celsius, some industrial-grade solid-state hard disks can also operate at temperatures ranging from -40 to 85 degrees Celsius or even larger.
Several Cognitions about Solid State Hard Disks
Question 1: How will external usage affect solid state hard disks?
Answer: Solid state hard disks are more shock and vibration resistant than traditional hard disks because they have no moving parts. In addition, there is no risk of data loss from magnetization due to the non-use of magnetic storage media. So if a notebook manufacturer uses a solid state hard disk, it can save a lot of hard disk shock protection accessories and further save space and weight in the body. For desktop PCs, there is no need to worry about the environment when using a solid-state hard disk.
It is interesting to ask if the airport security perspective scanner will affect the solid state hard disk, and I cannot give an authoritative answer. But understand that solid-state hard disks are no different from flash memory in Udisks, memory cards, and mobile phones in terms of physical characteristics, so you should not worry about the effects of X-rays on them.
Q2: Why don’t you have a 3.5 inch solid state hard disks?
Answer: The main reason is that the “reasonable capacity” flash memory does not occupy too much space in terms of physical specifications. It is more suitable to make 2.5 inch or 1.8 Inch specifications. Where I say “reasonable capacity” means that it can provide enough storage space for practical application at a reasonable price. If you fill a 3.5 inch hard drive with flash memory, the price will be staggering.
Many people may be mistaken about the fact that SSD does not have a 3.5 inch model because it only targets the notebook market. In fact, solid state hard disks never exclude desktop PCs, in desktop 3. There is no difficulty in installing a 2.5 inch solid state hard disk in a 5 inch hard disk location. Also, there is no difference between the SATA interface of a 3.5 inch hard disk and a 2.5 inch hard disk.
Question 3: Will solid state hard drives be used more slowly?
Answer: This is a complex question. In the life cycle of SSD, many factors will affect its performance. One of the most important is data fragmentation. Unfortunately, there is no external measure of the impact of data fragmentation on solid-state hard disks. As mentioned above, the test program may be able to detect performance differences between internal storage organization of solid-state hard disks, but this does not significantly affect the user experience. Optimizing the solid state hard disk file system will further address this issue in the future.
Q4: Does the solid state hard disks support hot plugging?
Answer: No problem, it fully supports the hot plug function defined by the SATA specification.
Q5: What process does Intel solid state hard disk use?
Answer: X18-M and X25-M use Intel 50nm MLC flash, while X25-E use 50nm SLC flash.
Q6: When the solid state hard disk is full, will the performance degrade?
Answer: Good question. For solid-state hard disks, performance has little to do with how much data is stored. Whether empty or near full, the loss balance management algorithm for flash memory will work as usual. Some common file systems, such as NTFS and FAT32, may experience performance degradation when space is low, but this is a software problem and is not associated with the use of solid-state storage. When file systems specifically designed for solid-state hard disks come out in the future, there may also be examples of how much data a hard disk stores affects performance.