14 DAY TRIAL // Solid state drives (or SSDs, as they are more commonly known), represent the future of storage solutions for portable computing systems, as they provide high data storage capacities in relatively small and shockproof form factors. This is the reason why Samsung has developed their 1.8-inch, 64GB SSD, which could prove to be an excellent solution for notebooks and laptops. And they haven't just developed it, they've already started the mass production process, according to the latest information released by the company, which means that the first devices that actually use 64GB SSDs will be available on the market towards the end of 2007.
The reason why SSDs are so popular is the fact that they provide a greater level of reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives do. Moreover, since they're based on flash modules, they require a lot less power to operate, and thus enhance the portable computing systems' battery life. And since I've mentioned the term "flash memory", it's important to know that Samsung's 64GB SSD consists of 64 eight Gigabit (Gb) single-level cell flash memory chips, the use of 51nm process technology allowing the fabrication of much smaller components, with each chip having circuitry 1/2500th the width of a human hair.
But why have these things become so popular, besides the advantages mentioned above? Jim Elliott, director, flash marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. has an answer for us, saying that "We see sharply increasing interest in SSDs among OEMs worldwide amid a growing push to launch premium SSD-based notebooks, particularly in the ultra-mobile category."
Samsung has already launched 32 GB SSDs, which are used in the case of UMPCS and that will probably become the internal storage solution of choice for a wide range of devices, ranging from camcorders to PDAs. However, SSDs represent a priority for the Korean company, since this expects the sales of SSD units to increase with up to 270 percent until 2010, thus making these storage solutions the largest growth segment in the NAND flash industry.
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