Hard DSS overestimated by users according to manufacturers
By admin at 15 August, 2008, 11:56 am
At the Flash Memory Summit, disc manufacturers DSS expressed concern, not without irony, “the effect of mode” around their products now fitted to some laptops, and sometimes disappointments on the part of users.
The Flash Memory Summit meeting this week all manufacturers of flash memory and disk SSD in Santa Clara, California, including Intel, SanDisk, Samsung and Micron. The Flash memory and disks DSS are indeed storage components that are much talk about them at the moment, they equip more and more often, netbooks low prices for memory modules in a Flash part (8 to 12 GB), and some high-end ultraportables as the MacBook Air or Lenovo ThinkPad X300 for SSD drives on the other hand (32, 64 GB, soon to 128 and 256 GB).
Citing a report by Gartner pointing the craze for discs DSS since June 2007, officials SanDisk and Micron were concerned about the wave of disillusionment that could follow, relate to our fellow News.com. Doreet Oren, marketing manager at SanDisk, said that the arrival of discs DSS led a broad movement waiting on their performance and their supposed benefits, disproportionate to the real value of current products, which could be detrimental to midst of adoption. Basically, technology DSS is still young, there are still many development and reliability work to be done.
A speech prudent far removed from that held by manufacturers of PC laptops, which are promoting their machines with discs and DSS supposed to boast of enhanced performance, autonomy and reliability. This “disillusionment” of users, pointed to by manufacturers, seems to actually become a reality: a few months ago, a U.S. expert with a large computer manufacturer had found a rate of return SAV abnormally high (between 10 and 20%) of its Laptops equipped with SSD disks.
5 years of life, and yet …
Manufacturers themselves acknowledge that the DSS technology is not flawless at the moment. First unpleasant reality: “DSS wears a hard,” says Todd Dickelman Micron. But sustainability also depends greatly on the use. The disc DSS wears quickly if it is often asked to write or rewrite data (treating multiple files, installation / uninstallation of applications, etc.).. By cons, a user who only surf the web and write e-mails will have more chance of seeing the DSS his laptop computer last longer.
So much for the lifetime of the disk SSD, which does not, therefore, more or less even though a mechanical hard drive. Current efforts by Micron, Intel and SanDisk cover a lifetime guarantee of at least 5 years, regardless of usage.
Vista allergic to the DSS?
Another source of concern: Windows Vista. The Microsoft operating system would hardly be adapted to the DSS records, resulting in poor performance at certain tasks. Microsoft therefore work with SanDisk, Intel, Samsung and others to improve the account by Vista this storage media. However, no new functions have been integrated with Service Pack 1. It will certainly wait for the next updates. Maybe a new OS so hard DSS are managed optimally.
These findings should encourage caution before buying an ultraportable with SSD hard at the moment, both the incremental cost is still important. With the arrival of future generations (256 GB and more, announced at Micron, Intel, Samsung), the extra cost will be even more important. However, these models are based on a new technology, MLC (Multi-Level Cell), for greater performance and reliability, according to the manufacturers.
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