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Demartek Publishes SSD Primer

Because of the great interest in solid state storage (SSS) technology, we have compiled this summary document providing some basic information for solid state drive (SSD) or solid state disk technology. The terms SSS and SSD are often used interchangeably. Technically, SSD refers to a specific form factor, while SSS refers to any solid state storage form factor.

Solid state storage devices are computer storage devices that use memory technology for the storage media rather than traditional magnetic media such as hard disk drives (HDD) or tape drives. These SSS devices can be made with DRAM memory technology or Flash memory technology, or sometimes both. These devices appear to the host operating system as storage devices.

This document will be updated periodically and may become larger over time. Contact us if you’d like to see additional information in this document.

This documents includes acronyms, discussion of form factors, NAND flash basics, endurance, performance, cost metrics and data placement strategies such as caching and tiering.

This primer is available on the Demartek web site.

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