Though much talked about in recent times, the advent of solid state drives (SSDs) will take quiet a while, it is being said. The SSDs were expected to replace traditional hard drives to solid state drives (SSDs), but as per latest talk, this might not happen this year, as the ratio of SSDs used in PCs remains low due to higher per GB costs.
Memory module makers feel that the chipmakers might get into production of 30nm which would, in turn, turn to be a catalyst for the adoption of SSDs in the near future. It was earlier opined by the industry that SSDs were most likely to be featured in more PCs when chip suppliers transition to 30nm-class or below nodes and are able to push NAND flash prices down.
Chipmakers had also expected that the debut of Windows 7, significantly, optimized for incorporating SSDs would help in speeding up the process.However, uncertain demand has made chipmakers to go on a backfoot, doubting whether SSDs would go mainstream replacing hard disk drives (HDDs) at least in year 2010, that is next year.
The manufacturers have been quoted as saying that though the flash-based drives can improve PC performance and reduce power consumption, HDDs are still competitive in terms of pricing.So, if at all the replacement happens, the penetration of SSDs are expected to reach only 1-1.5 per cent of the regular notebook sector in 2009, and less than 10 per cent in the low-cost PC segment. These figures, estimated by a recent survey conducted by DRAMeXchange, also point to the fact that SSDs are still finding it hard to gain broader appeal due to higher NAND flash prices.
