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SSD Prices in a Free Fall

networkcomputing.com

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Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#21

Post by trose »

snowwrestler wrote: post #6
forscha wrote: post #2

Is the hdd demise indeed expected so quickly?

SSDs need to be powered up fairly often to maintain data integrity. So, they're great for the drives in computers, but for external or backup drives--which might only be powered up occasionally, spinning magnetic disks will still be a better choice for a while, it seems. edit: maybe not. Bringing this article up from samcheng's post below: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-...

Seems pretty plausible that we could create an SSD that would power up on a timer then couldn't we? Am I missing something?

Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#22

Post by pmontra »

snowwrestler wrote: post #6
forscha wrote: post #2

Is the hdd demise indeed expected so quickly?

SSDs need to be powered up fairly often to maintain data integrity. So, they're great for the drives in computers, but for external or backup drives--which might only be powered up occasionally, spinning magnetic disks will still be a better choice for a while, it seems. edit: maybe not. Bringing this article up from samcheng's post below: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-...

Maybe not.

http://www.itworld.com/article/2921047/hardware/no-you-wont-...

Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#23

Post by [deleted] »

_dark_matter_ wrote: post #8
hbbio wrote: post #5

In a side-note in the article, the author mentions that Amazon Glacier runs on tape. Although I'm not sure Amazon officially explained the technology, I heard (and read on Wikipedia) that they store data on conventional HDDs, that are however kept "offline". Has anyone here some more knowledge about that?

Yes please. I was also intrigued by this statement. I was under the impression that Amazon never told what the "secret sauce" was behind Glacier. Looking at Wikipedia now, it seems there are still multiple contending theories. Also, is it true that the service is not very popular? Are people here using it or similar?

[deleted]

Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#24

Post by MCRed »

forscha wrote: post #2

Is the hdd demise indeed expected so quickly?

Think about the market dynamics. Not just the 3D technology they are talking about, which brings parity within range, imagine what you would do if you were an SSD maker and this was on the horizon.

You'd rush to reach parity because as soon as that happens there's no reason to buy an HD over an SSD. So you're going to want to cut prices as fast as possible so that when the market switches over-- which will be a HUGE tipping point for the industry-- you can get as much market share as you can. Even taking a loss now on a reliable drive may get you customers for life who you can profit from later.

I think the transition is going to be extremely dramatic and it's a huge opportunity in this industry. I think we'll be seeing HD makers switching over their product lines to have more and more flash, and more and more flash drives, while re-positioning hard drives to very particular environments where they have an advantage (I'm not sure where these are)

But this is going to be a tornado of a market and some people are going to be come very rich as a result.

Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#25

Post by x0x0 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #3
forscha wrote: post #2

Is the hdd demise indeed expected so quickly?

It appears so. "By packing 32 or 64 times the capacity per die, 3D NAND will allow SSDs to increase capacity well beyond hard drive sizes. SanDisk, for example, plans 8 TB drives this year, and 16 TB drives in 2016. At the same time, vendors across the flash industry are able to back off two process node levels and obtain excellent die yields." Goodnight spinning disk; you've served us well.

/me does the happy dance

an ssd is the best hardware upgrade I've had in the last 5 years

Once you get used to it, try using a computer with spinning rust and it will just feel glacial

who doesn't need multi-tb ssds in their laptop?

Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#26

Post by bifrost »

SSD technology still has a reliability hurdle, you can nuke one in a month if you write to it constantly. Spinning media has much longer read/write durability. Until there is parity its still a bit of an arms race for capacity.

Hybrid drives are pretty awful so I don't think they'll stick around. I could see Hierarchical Storage Management make a comeback and an entry to the consumer space, but thats been esoteric at best.

Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#27

Post by MCRed »

I can't wait. Once I can reasonably replace everything with SSDs I will.

And then I'll never buy spinning rust again.

I dreamed of this eventuality in the 1990s. I didn't know what technology would be used. I never expected EEPROMs would evolve in this direction (now marketed as "FLASH") as they were so fickle and unreliable in those days.

This will allow lots of interesting things.

Imagine a laptop that's got its main RAM backed on a dedicated bit of high speed flash... so it instantly powers off completely and instantly powers back on completely.

Soon, we'll have the massive increase in storage capacity much like we've had a massive increase in compute capacity to the point where you no longer really think about it-- all computers are "fast".

Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#29

Post by Bill_Dimm »

trose wrote: post #21
snowwrestler wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSDs need to be powered up fairly often to maintain data integrity. So, they're great for the drives in computers, but for external or backup drives--which might only be powered up occasionally, spinning magnetic disks will still be a better choice for a while, it seems. edit: maybe not. Bringing this article up from samcheng's post below: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-...

Seems pretty plausible that we could create an SSD that would power up on a timer then couldn't we? Am I missing something?

Backup drives stored in a vault probably don't have access to electricity.

Re: SSD Prices in a Free Fall

#30

Post by toomuchtodo »

bifrost wrote: post #26

SSD technology still has a reliability hurdle, you can nuke one in a month if you write to it constantly. Spinning media has much longer read/write durability. Until there is parity its still a bit of an arms race for capacity. Hybrid drives are pretty awful so I don't think they'll stick around. I could see Hierarchical Storage Management make a comeback and an entry to the consumer space, but thats been esoteric at…

False.

http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experim...

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