Solid State Drives: The Next Big Leap
Over fifteen years ago, my father patiently explained both the concept and benefits of solid state storage devices to my younger self. I can vividly remember the conversation, it was the first time I had ever heard the word "volatile." His explanation was simple, there are two forms of memory. The first and most common type of memory is volatile; it will only hold information if it is powered by electricity. Your computer's RAM (Random Access Memory) is a perfect example of this, it forgets everything when you turn off your computer. The second and less common type of memory is non-volatile; it will hold information even without power. At the time, my father obviously referenced EEPROM as an example, but a more common example today would be flash drives.
Hard drive platters
That being said, hard drives do not store information on memory. Instead, the information is stored inside the drive mechanically on a few circular plates, known as "platters." In most common drives, these platters spin at speeds anywhere from 4,200 to 7,200 rotations per minute. In between each platter is a mechanical arm that slides back and forth to catch information as it passes. As you can imagine, if you open a file located on the other side of the platter, the arm has to physically move to get to the file. That is why your computer slows down right before opening a program; it has to actually find where the data is located before it can start to read it. This wasted time is called "seek time."
The technology to accomplish mechanical storage is so impressive that sometimes I wonder how it even works at all. There is so much movement and activity happening inside this device that has to be executed perfectly for everything to work. But, as you know, it doesn't always function as planned. This is due to the fact that the hard drive is still a mechanical device, and all machines are subject to wear and tear - eventually resulting in a hard drive crash.
The term "hard drive crash" is not just an expression; it is literally the description of what happens when one of the drive arms make contact with a platter. To say the least, scraping a drive head along a platter at the speed of 7,200 RPMs results in some pretty serious damage to your data. This most often happens for one of two reasons: either the drive dies prematurely due to excessive vibrations or it slowly wears out over time. An example of a premature death would be a laptop that is thrown, dropped, or otherwise moved too quickly. This vibration can cause the platters to smack against the drive head, resulting in a hard drive crash. But even if it doesn't die early, it will eventually die as the platters' lubrication breaks down over time. The lubrication keeps the platters spinning evenly and smoothly, but after the compound breaks down, the platters will wobble themselves right into a drive head.
Solid state storage "chips"
Non-volatile, solid state storage technology is not subject to any of the drawbacks of mechanical storage. It cannot ever crash, because it is simply a cluster of electronic chips. It doesn't really have "seek times", because information is directly called from whichever chip it is located. And, it is incredibly fast; current solid state drives are much faster than the fastest mechanical hard drives. So, why aren't we using it yet?
"Too expensive right now," is what my father told me when I asked him. No matter how great an invention, it is only feasible if it is economical. Fifteen years ago, you would be spending over $100,000 for a small amount of solid state storage. Ask the airline industry, they required that type of technology on planes since the vibrations would destroy a normal hard drive. While I couldn't afford the technology, I could still watch it evolve through the years. As time went on, the technology increased in storage capacity as well as speed, while slowly becoming more affordable. I even tested out some of the earlier solid state drives two years ago in custom built ITX systems and, while it worked great, decided that it wasn't yet ready for mainstream desktop or server applications.
Fortunately, times have changed. In the last few months, I have watched multiple products become available that are both affordable and realistic. Many computer hobbyists have already taken the plunge with this new technology, who can rationalize spending up to $300 for a drive with at least 128GB of storage capacity. (To put that in perspective, you can purchase a 2,000GB mechanical hard drive for around $150.) So, this morning, when I found out my mechanical hard disk drive was starting to go bad, I wasn't exactly upset. I immediately headed over to my favorite online electronic retailer and purchased the solid state drive that I had been ogling for months, the Crucial RealSSD C300. Not only am I fifteen years over due for this technology upgrade, but I never want to deal with another dead hard drive.
I have lived through many changes to the personal computer throughout my lifetime. Some of the more notable advancements have been the replacement of command line with a graphical interface, floppy drives with optical drives, 14.4K dialup modems with highspeed broadband, single-core processors with multi-core processors, and CRTs with LCD monitors.
Fifteen years ago, I could not have told you when we would have solid state drives. But looking at how far the technology has progressed, I can safely predict that most computer enthusiasts will have a solid state boot drive by 2012; all mainstream computer manufacturers, such as Dell, HP, and Apple, will offer solid state drives as the default boot drive in all models by 2015; and by 2020, solid state drives will almost completely eliminate mechanical disk drives as they will have surpassed them in storage capacity and beat them in price. At least in the field of computer science, solid state drives will be this decade's greatest achievement.