Solid state drive (SSD) technology is still years away from mainstream adoption, but companies continue to roll out SSD lines they hope will help draw new users towards the technology.
CDFreaks today spoke with OCZ Technology's VP of Technology Development, Michael Schuette, who helped us learn more about OCZ's efforts in the growing market.
"SSD Technology is the next big thing in mass storage technology," Schuette told CDFreaks during the interview. "We are on the brink of a shift in the way of how data are stored in that SSDs will very soon replace the standard HDD as the system drive of choice whereas HDDs will capture a significant amount of the data archival market segment that is currently owned by DLTs (digital linear tapes)."
Even though a few HDD companies are patiently waiting to see how the SSD market develops before announcing new products, other companies, including OCZ, believe entering the market now is ideal both for the company and consumers.
"In other words, we add new technology at the top of the performance pyramid and broaden the base at the bottom in that DLTs no longer are back-up media but true archival means. It is important that OCZ plays a pioneering role in this technology turn-over, specifically by driving this development from the top which forces the bottom to react."
Analysts expect SSDs to take over in the future because they are the best at reducing data access time, as SSDs don't have any moving parts, so its data access times are much lower. HDDs must rely on a spinning disk and a read/write head that is required to move, which also increases the likelihood of failure. In addition, some SSDs also use less power per GB than their HDD counterparts.
OCZ recently introduced its Vertex line of SSDs with 64MB of onboard cache, designed to make faster transfers leading to improved system responsiveness. Rather than force flash memory into a "functional fit" developed "as consequence of the idiosyncrasies of HDD technology," OCZ believes it created a SSD line possible of using all the positive flash features for its products.
"Single level cell (SLC) flash is on the way toward becoming a high price specialty form of memory for the simple reason that the density per area is only 1/2 of that of MLC flash but so far, performance demands have kept SLC in the race," CDFreaks was told. "This will change with the next generation of SSDs of which the Vertex is probably the first to enter the market."
One of the key factors facing the SSD market is the overall price of the drives when compared to HDDs. For example, the 30GB Vertex SSD will start at $129, with a 120GB model available for $469 and the 250GB drive coming in at $869.
When asked about pricing, OCZ has already taken steps to reduce the price of SSDs, and will continue to do so in the future, though no specifics were revealed.
SSDs are becoming more common in netbooks and the enterprise, but for the technology to be successful, it must find a way to make it to the desktop.
"The Internet culture - or digital age has created the need for large data carrier because people are downloading audiovisual content more than ever before and that is where HDDs will prevail," OCZ explained. "However, you have to look at this in the context of adding archival media to the PC and in that case, speed is desirable but nobody really watches a DVD at 20x speed."
"At the same time, the core computing, that is the operating system and applications still have a footprint that fits on a much smaller drive and that is where speed counts and makes all the difference in the world for boot-up time and application loading and that is where SSDs will become an integral part of desktop systems sooner rather than later."
OCZ showed good faith when it launched the Vertex line of SSDs, and it appears the technology maker is ready to be involved in SSDs for the long-run. As the price of SSD drives continues to slide -- slowly but surely -- expect the drives to head out of the netbook and enterprise market, and finally make their way more towards the consumer market.
