Solid-State Drives (SSDs)

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An SSD is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently. SSD technology primarily uses electronic interfaces compatible with traditional block input/output (I/O) hard disk drives (HDDs), which permit simple replacements in common applications. SSDs have no moving mechanical components.

An SSD does functionally everything a hard drive does, but data is instead stored on interconnected flash memory chips that retain the data even when there is no power present.

These flash memory chips are of a different type than is used in USB thumb drives, and are typically faster and more reliable. The chips can be permanently installed

• on the system’s motherboard (as on some small laptops and ultraportables),
• on a PCI Express (PCIe) card (in some high-end workstations and cutting-edge consumer systems), or
• in a box that is sized, shaped, and wired to slot in for a laptop or desktop’s hard drive.

Compared with electromechanical disks, SSDs are typically more resistant to physical shock, run silently, have lower access time, and lower latency. However, while the price of SSDs has continued to decline over time, consumer-grade SSDs are (as of 2016) still roughly four times more expensive per unit of storage than consumer-grade HDDs.