Solid-state drives

Knowing what is the next big advancement in the computer industry has been vitally important to many individuals over the past few decades. Investors had made a fortune scavenging the market for the next up and coming product. Computer geeks scour the web seeking the newest program or upgrade that will set themselves apart from the rest of the computing world. Well, although the next major breakthrough is not much of a secret, it will undoubtedly effect the computer industry.

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that utilizes solid-state memory. They use what is called flash memory and are very similar to USB flash drives and various memory cards. What separates these drives from their more common predecessors is the absence of moving parts. This makes them much less fragile, less likely to lose efficiency over time, silent, and most importantly eliminates mechanical delays. These devices also ensure a much quicker start up, because unlike traditional hard drives, which require a spinning up period, the SSD is ready to go!

Although this new advance is highly advantageous and is almost certainly the next significant hardware advancement in the computer industry, they are still rather expensive and are often not commercially available in the sizes required to run entire computers. However, in the past two years many companies, including Dell, Apple, and Asus, have began offering SSD upgrades. Intel is currently making their own SSD chipset and is regarded as the leader in the industry. It will not be long before these little wonders will be standard in most computers, and I for one plan to upgrade my lab-top with one as soon as possible.