

The Solid State Future. - mspeiser
http://laserlike.com/2009/05/01/the-solid-state-future/

======
timtrueman
Chart combining pricing with sequential and random I/O performance data:
[http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2009/04/18/SSDVersusEnterpr...](http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2009/04/18/SSDVersusEnterpriseSATAAndSASDisks.aspx)

~~~
ableal
The non-enterprise SSDs (including Intel's -M line) are now at under 40% of
the price (i.e. USD 5/GB), and can probably deliver 80% of the performance for
realistic workloads.

I'd also guess that by this time next year we'll be seeing the consequences
(and USD 2 or 3/GB prices, if the demand doesn't drive prices up instead).

------
tophat02
The biggest change will not be the HDD -> SSD transition, but rather the SSD
-> MRAM transition or, equivalently, the point at which there is suddenly no
speed difference between RAM and secondary storage.

At that point, there WILL be no secondary storage. Or, rather, CPU cache will
become very large and be the primary storage and (M)RAM will be the secondary
storage.

In either case, given that CPU cache is (designed to be) transparent, the
whole computing landscape will be irrevocably altered.

Think about it... what would a computing environment look like if it was based
around a system in which all your data and code was just as instantly
addressable and accessible as all your other data and code, and it was just
ONE address space?

------
tlb
Summary: solid state disks cost more per GB than spinning disks. But they make
computers go faster, so you need fewer computers, so you may save overall.

In fact, it's only in very specialized situations where having faster disks
means you need fewer computers.

~~~
ableal
More than that. A two orders of magnitude kick to the backside of the memory
hierarchy necessarily has a ripple effect (e.g.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=557961>).

It's not only the savings in current applications - it's the new ones that are
made possible, or cost-effective. Note the tail end of the piece, and comment
#6 - avc.com's ears are pricked up ;-)

