Own an Intel SSD? Tell how worn out it is!
Posted on 23rd Oct 2009 at 10:45 by Richard Swinburne with 28 comments
Kingston dropped an interesting titbit that we thought we'd pass on to all Intel SSD owners - of which there's soon to be a lot more once the latest value X25-X drives arrive.
Basically, the biggest unknown factor in NAND Flash technology is wear and tear. The cells have a limited amount of data writes, so don't last forever, even though intelligent wear algorithms mean an MLC drive will last 10 years having written a few hundred GB a day to it - far more than any normal user will do.
One question that will get more important as time goes on is the second hand market: How can you account for wear if you're buying it off someone else?
Basically, the biggest unknown factor in NAND Flash technology is wear and tear. The cells have a limited amount of data writes, so don't last forever, even though intelligent wear algorithms mean an MLC drive will last 10 years having written a few hundred GB a day to it - far more than any normal user will do.
One question that will get more important as time goes on is the second hand market: How can you account for wear if you're buying it off someone else?
