SSD

Solid-State Drive

A type of non-volatile storage device that stores data on NAND-based flash memory. It is a faster and more reliable alternative to traditional hard disk drives (HDD) that use spinning disks to store data.

Unlike HDDs, SSDs have no moving parts, which makes them less vulnerable to mechanical failures and allows them to access stored data much faster. They use less power than HDDs, generate less heat and can handle rough usage.

An SSD consists of flash memory chips that are organized into NAND cells, which are grouped together to form a NAND flash memory block. The SSD controller is responsible for managing the flash memory and interfaces with the host computer.

When data is stored on an SSD, it is written to the NAND flash memory in blocks. The SSD controller manages the wear leveling and garbage collection on the drive to ensure data integrity over time, which helps to extend the life of the SSD.

SSDs are becoming increasingly popular, and are now commonly used in laptops, desktops and servers. They are becoming the standard for storage in many high-performance computing applications because of their speed, reliability, and power efficiency. In comparison to traditional hard drives, SSDs can boot-up an operating system and load applications much faster, also providing faster read/write access times for files and data.

• Abbreviation: SSD