Solid State Drives: Enabling MLC Technology in the Enterprise

• Publication date: November 2009

Due to demanding performance workloads, SLC technology has been the technology of choice for SSDs in enterprise computing environment. Therefore, it came as a surprise when in August of this year, STEC, the leading enterprise SSD vendor announced that it will offer MLC-based enterprise SSDs. Are these products aimed at niche applications or do they suggest the beginnings of broader adoption of MLC technology in SSDs in the enterprise space?...

Due to demanding performance workloads, SLC technology has been the technology of choice for SSDs in enterprise computing environment. Therefore, it came as a surprise when in August of this year, STEC, the leading enterprise SSD vendor announced that it will offer MLC-based enterprise SSDs.
Are these products aimed at niche applications or do they suggest the beginnings of broader adoption of MLC technology in SSDs in the enterprise space? This report provides a thoughtful analysis of SSD usage models and what applications could conceivably be addressed by MLC technology.
In addition, a detailed examination of SSD adoption in notebook, low cost mobile and desktop PCs is provided.
An excel spreadsheet of all the data in the report along with a the report in .pdf format is provided.

Hardware And Electronic Equipment Industry

Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Executive Summary
Introduction
Enabling MLC Technology in the Enterprise
NAND (SSD Usage Models) in Enterprise
Overcoming the Shortcomings of MLC Technology
Applications for MLC Technology
Enterprise Applications
Performance Characteristics
Total Cost of Ownership
General Pricing Trends
Server-attached SSDs
Boot Drives
PCIe
SATA/SAS I/O
Storage-attached SSDs
Boot Drives
FC/SAS I/O
Total Enterprise SSD Market
Low Cost Mobile PC Applications
Netbooks
Smartbooks
Value proposition
Implications for SSDs
Market Outlook
Mainstream PC Applications
Trends
Notebook PC Market
Total Cost of Ownership
mSATA
Desktop PC Market
Computing SSD Market
Competitive Landscape
SWOT Analysis
NAND Flash Vendors
HDD Vendors
Module Houses
Controller Vendors
HDD Controller Vendors
Summary
Vendor Status
PC Applications
Enterprise Applications
Appendix I: NAND Flash Memory Overview
NAND Flash Memory Introduction
Concept
NAND Flash Architecture
Appendix II: Endurance
References
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