Exploring High-speed and Reliable SSD

SSD stands for Solid State Drive, which translates to “固态硬盘” in Chinese. It is a storage device used to replace traditional HDD. Compared with HDD, SSD uses flash memory chips instead of mechanical components when storing data, which makes SSD have faster read and write speeds, higher reliability, and lower energy consumption. The flash memory chips in SSD uses non-volatile storage technology, which means that data can still be retained even in the event of a power outage.

The working principle of SSD is to use transistors in flash memory chips to store data. Each transistor can store one binary bit of data, representing 0 and 1 by charging and discharging electrons in the transistor. Compared with HDD, SSD doesn’t require mechanical components to read and write data. SSD uses flash technology to store data inside the flash chip, without the need to access data through disk rotation and read-write heads like HDD. This makes SSD much faster in read speed than HDD, resulting in faster data transfer rates and lower response times, performing better in data transfer, boot speed, and application loading.

In addition, SSD has high seismic resistance and low noise levels because it doesn’t has moving mechanical parts. It is also more durable because there is no magnetic head in contact with the surface of the disk, which eliminates the problem of HDD being easily damaged.

One of the shortcomings of SSD is that it is relatively expensive compared to HDD and has limited storage capacity. But with the development of technology, the price of SSD is gradually decreasing, and the capacity is also gradually increasing.

In fact, when SSD was first introduced, due to its high prices, installation enthusiasts could only choose 64GB/128GB SSD with smaller capacities as installation disks. It wasn't until later, with the precipitation of SSD technology, prices finally became affordable, and even 1TB SSD was often priced at six or seven hundred yuan. However, there are still many users who don't understand why the speed difference between SSD with the same Nvme protocol is so large? There are SSDs with speeds of around 1500MB/s and 3000MB/s on the market. What is the difference between them?

Let's first talk about the two most common types of SSDs on the market. One is the SATA protocol SSD, which is a very old protocol and has the same interface as the HDD we commonly used in the past. These SSDs are generally used to upgrade old hosts or as storage disks, and their highest read and write speeds are usually around 500MB/s, which is relatively cheaper in price. Another type is SSD with M.2 interface that supports Nvme protocol. Currently, most mainstream motherboards support PCle3.0 protocol. Under this framework, the maximum read and write speed of SSD is generally around 3500MB/s. Of course, the latest motherboards currently support the PCle4.0 protocol, which will result in faster speeds, even up to 5500MB/s, and this is also a popular trend in the future. However, the price is currently not very affordable.

In short, SSD is an advanced storage device widely used in computers and other electronic devices, which has advantages such as high-speed performance, reliability, energy saving and environmental protection, and compact size. With the advancement of technology and the reduction of costs, SSD is gradually replacing traditional HDD and becoming the mainstream storage devices.