Solid State Drive Technology and Applications: A Primer is an ideal guide for novices interested in acquiring a basic understanding of SSD technology and applications as well as a handy reference for more experienced professionals. The report provides a detailed overview of the technology, architecture and reliability of SSDs as well as techniques for improving the performance and endurance. The advantages and disadvantages of SSDs versus HDDs in PCs and enterprise computing are examined along with an analysis of enterprise applications appropriate for SSD technology. The report also provides an overview of the competitive landscape for SSDs and relevant industry standards.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES

INTRODUCTION

NAND FLASH MEMORY OVERVIEW
NAND Flash
Concept
Technology Evolution
NAND Flash Architecture
NAND Flash Density Trend
Page Size Trend
Block Size Trend
Read Time
Program Time
Endurance
Retention

SOLID STATE DRIVES
What is a solid state drive?
The Memory Hierarchy
SSD Overview
SSD Architecture
Controller
Flash Translation Layer
Mapping Schemes
Bad Block Management
Wear-leveling
Garbage Collection
Error Correction
Interleaving
Power Loss Protection
Techniques for Improving SSD Performance/Endurance
Caching
Flash File System Optimization
Parallelism
Flash Bus Width
Over-provisioning
Improved NAND Flash Memory
Re-mapping of Drive Block
Alternative SSD Architectures
Chameleon
Hybrid SSD
HyperLink NAND
SSD Reliability
Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
Endurance
Program Disturb
Read Disturb
Data Retention
Bit Error Rate
SMART

SSD APPLICATIONS
PC Applications
Total Cost of Ownership
Performance Trend
Notebook PCs and Tablets
Desktop PCs
Enterprise Applications
Transaction Processing
Video Server
High Performance Computing
Internet/Network Server
Application Workload Characteristics
Server-attached vs. Storage-attached SSDs
SSDs by Interface
Price / GB
SSD LANDSCAPE
Chronology
Vendor Landscape
Standards
IDEMA
JEDEC
Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCI)
SNIA SSD Initiative
SSD Alliance
Technical Committee T13 AT Attachment
Technical Committee T10

REFERENCES