Why SSDs Are Great For Mobile Computing
Everyone has been pretty keen to try out SSD, but prices are a bit prohibitive, especially if you try to go for an SLC unit. With HDD prices so low, you might ask why the interest.
Besides their blazing speed (have you seen a computer boot with an internal SSD?), and lack of noise, there are still a number of positives with SSDs. Even if you disregard the difference in power consumption (some say that the wear-leveling algorithms cause the SSDs to consume as much power as HDDs), there is a major boon to those who live in mountainous areas (or travel there with their computers).
What we often forget is that HDDs depend on an air cushion created by the air friction of the rotating disks. This prevents the read/write heads from crashing or contacting the fragile magnetic disks. Moving up in altitude causes air to thin (or rather the air thins as we go up in altitude), and the air cushion gets less effective, until it eventually fails.
Trust companies like Apple Inc. to state in their specifications for their computers that they are not meant to operate above 10 000 feet (or 3 048 metres), so that they cover themselves in case of failures. So what about people who live in Lhasa (altitude: 11 450 feet or 3 490 metres) or Cusco (altitude: 10 860 feet or 3 310 metres)? Do they have to live without computers?
Judging from the number of Internet cafés in both cities, it certainly is not the case. What they have been living with is the risk that the HDDs may crash, especially when the city is experiencing some low pressure system. That's where SSDs, which are not affected by air pressure come in. Not only would they work perfectly well, computer users need not worry about the low air pressure and only need to worry if they themselves are suffering from Altitude Sickness.
So, why do computer makers that incorporate SSDs into their computers still limit their use to lower than 10 000 feet?
Besides their blazing speed (have you seen a computer boot with an internal SSD?), and lack of noise, there are still a number of positives with SSDs. Even if you disregard the difference in power consumption (some say that the wear-leveling algorithms cause the SSDs to consume as much power as HDDs), there is a major boon to those who live in mountainous areas (or travel there with their computers).
What we often forget is that HDDs depend on an air cushion created by the air friction of the rotating disks. This prevents the read/write heads from crashing or contacting the fragile magnetic disks. Moving up in altitude causes air to thin (or rather the air thins as we go up in altitude), and the air cushion gets less effective, until it eventually fails.
Trust companies like Apple Inc. to state in their specifications for their computers that they are not meant to operate above 10 000 feet (or 3 048 metres), so that they cover themselves in case of failures. So what about people who live in Lhasa (altitude: 11 450 feet or 3 490 metres) or Cusco (altitude: 10 860 feet or 3 310 metres)? Do they have to live without computers?
Judging from the number of Internet cafés in both cities, it certainly is not the case. What they have been living with is the risk that the HDDs may crash, especially when the city is experiencing some low pressure system. That's where SSDs, which are not affected by air pressure come in. Not only would they work perfectly well, computer users need not worry about the low air pressure and only need to worry if they themselves are suffering from Altitude Sickness.
So, why do computer makers that incorporate SSDs into their computers still limit their use to lower than 10 000 feet?