Solid State Drives - Will 2009 Be the Year They Take Off?

Since the introduction of Solid State Drives (SSD's), it has been possible to achieve much faster file access,better shock resistance, and lower noise levels, all in the one package. However, this has come at a price - quite literally. The initial tranche of SSD's which were launched into the marketplace came with eye-watering prices and limited capacities. As with all new technology, initially high price levels start falling to a more attractive level, normally coinciding with a general increase in capacity and/or speed. A kind of virtuous circle ensues. Lower prices and better features attract higher sales.Higher sales allow further price reductions as R&D costs are recovered, fabrication plant yields get better and economies of scale kick in. This cycle continues until some kind of equilibrium is reached.

SSD's have still a long way to go before they become a mainstream replacement for hard disk drives, however there are some niche areas where they have already arrived. One of the big success stories of 2008 was the netbook. Although many netbooks are sold with conventional HDD's, the models which are capable of running for around 8 hours before the battery requires recharging are fitted with SSD's. Admittedly, this type of computer is unlikely to break any speed records, being based on a low powered processor, but it is none-the-less interesting to see a comparatively new and fairly expensive technology being used on the lowest power and price category of computer available to today's consumer.

SSD's are finding a growing market in laptop PC's. Until the price level falls far enough to justify complete replacement of HDD's in laptops, small SSD's have found their way into another niche. Many laptop users are fitting a low capacity SSD as an ancillary drive, to take advantage of the faster access speed and lower power consumption, both of which help the all important battery life. With operating system and application software on the SSD, mainly requiring read access, response times can be improved whilst leaving the HDD to cope with storing the data.

Users who have carputers are also likely to to be early adopters as the prices come down. Carputers have to operate under 2 constraints which do not normally affect home users. They operate in an environment where jolts and sudden acceleration/deceleration are a part of everyday operation. Few of us are lucky enough to live in places where the roads are as free from humps and potholes as we would wish. This can seriously limit the life of a HDD and can make the additional cost of an SSD worth considering. Carputers must also use as little power as possible, so the SSD is attractive for this reason also. (SSD or HDD?)

So - will 2009 be the year when SSD sales outnumber HDD sales? Well, it's possible, but I don't think the time is right just yet. However, I'm convinced it will happen within the next year or two. We've seen spectacular improvements served up by the HDD manufacturers, both in terms of speed and platter density, but this is very mature technology, over 50 years old and this rate of improvement cannot go on for ever. SSD's by comparison have only attracted the developers attention relatively recently, and we can look forward to massive improvements in the years to come.

Stewart_Macfarlane

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