It is getting certain that hard drives as we know them are not going to be the mainstream for data storing for too long. Although solid-state drives are used primarily for system that need low power consumption, SanDisk (and Microsoft) gave us hope that we can expect these drives in systems that need high performances, too.
SanDisk Corporation revealed plans for a new type of file system called ExtremeFFS. The enhancements of this file system can improve read and write speeds more than 100 times. This is supposed to be achieved with a page-based algorithm. This means that there is no connection between physical and logical locations. When writing data in a SSD, ExtremeFFS should put the data in a place that should be most efficient.
The second very important possibility of a NAND module that ExtremeFFS will use will is the multi-channel option. That means that the SSD can read or write in different modules at the same time.
The next two solutions do not really have a part in SSD performance, but could be useful to users.
Virtual RPM is a method of measuring the performances of a SSD. It represents the number of revolutions per minute that a hard drive should gain to have equal performances like the SSD in that moment. It is not really clear why it was necessary to create this kind of value. Why wouldn't we use read/write speeds, or access times? The only explanation that we could get is that would be the easiest way for the consumer to compare HDD and SSD performance. Nevertheless, an average consumer does not know that RPM does not really have to have a significant impact on HDD performance. Not a bad advertisement, I must say.
Sandisk has also thought a way to keep your data safe. That's the Long-Term Data Endurance (LDE). The technology implemented in SSDs to measure the reliability of a drive, and representing it as a number to the consumer. Sandisk has called other SSD drive manufacturers to follow this idea.
All of this should be available to the market in 2009.
Just to add, Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will have much better optimization for SSD drives. Shiny days are awaiting the SSD industry!
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