1.3.2 Solid State storage

Question 1

How solid state storage works - Accessing data

Answer 1

Data can be accessed randomly. This means that any piece of data can be accessed in a constant amount of time.
This is achievable because there are no moving parts.

Question 2

How solid state storage works - Storing a bit

Answer 2

Solid state drives are made of flash memory.
Flash memory stores the value of each bit in a semi-conductor chip.

Question 3

How solid state storage works - Reliability

Answer 3

Solid state drives (SSDs) are robust. They are not easily damaged by shocks because they don’t have any moving parts.
SSDs have a limited number of read/write cycles. After a certain number of re-writes they will stop working.

Question 4

Properties of Solid State Media - High speed

Answer 4

Solid state media tends to have very fast read/write times.
Some solid state media has slower access time. For example, USB sticks.

Question 5

Properties of Solid State Media - High Cost

Answer 5

Solid state media has a higher cost-per-GB than magnetic media.
Solid state drives (SSDs) do not last as long as hard disk drives (HDDs), so the cost can often seem restrictive.
Some people choose to pay more for the increase in performance.

Question 6

Properties of Solid State Media - Good Capacity

Answer 6

SSDs have a good capacity, but not on the scale of optical or magnetic media.

Question 7

Properties of Solid State Media - Good Reliability

Answer 7

Solid state media is very reliable and robust:
It rarely fails (until read/write limit is hit).
It is not easily damaged by shocks.
Once the read/write cycles are used up, then the drive will fail.