Potential Application of Solid 

Potential Application of Solid

State Drives in NetBooks
Jason Jeonghwan Kim
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Waterloo
2A Candidate for B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering
Feb 26, 2009

1
 Outline
• Background on solid state drives
B k d lid t t d i
• Overview of Netbooks
• Inadequacy of using hard disk drives
Inadequacy of using hard disk drives
• Advantages of using solid state drives
– Short Access Time
Short Access Time
– Weight
– Superior Kinetic Shock Resistance
p
• Disadvantages of using solid state drives
– Price
– Amount of Data Storage
• Summary

2
 Background on Solid State Drives
Background on Solid State Drives
• Solid State?
• Made of flash memory
Made of flash memory
– Non‐volatile
– Fast read access time
F d i
• Not to be confused with other kinds of solid 
state drives
– E.g. SRAM, DRAM, USB flash drive 
E g SRAM DRAM USB flash drive

3
 Overview of Flash Memory
Overview of Flash Memory
• Representation of 0/1
– By type of charge stored 
in the float gate
– Charge ‐> Current

4
*Diagram from www.wikipedia.org
 Overview of Flash Memory
Overview of Flash Memory
• Reading data
– + Voltage on bit line
Ground source line
– Negatively charged float 
gate
t
• No flow of current
– Positively
Positively charged float 
charged float
gate
• Flow of current
Flow of current

5
 Overview of Flash Memory
Overview of Flash Memory
• Writing data
– Ground source line
+ Voltage on bit line
+ Voltage on Control 
Gate
– Electrons move into float 
gate with quantum
gate with quantum 
tunneling effect
– To remove, electrons, 
, ,
negative voltage

6
 Overview of NetBooks
Overview of NetBooks
• Ultra‐portable laptop 
computers
• Priced under $500
• CPU, Storage, RAM
CPU, Storage, RAM
– Inferior to other laptops
• Weighted
Weighted between 
between
0.90 kg ~ 1.50 kg

7
*Diagram from www.wikipedia.org
 Inadequacy of Using HDD* for 
NetBooks
• Slow access time
Sl i
– Access time for HDD
= spin up time 
i i
+ seek time 
+ rotational delay
+ rotational delay 
+ transfer time
• Cannot
Cannot withhold too 
withhold too
much vibration
• Noise
• Heat

*Diagram from www.wikipedia.org
8
*This analysis of HDD is applicable only for 2.5” HDD.
 Advantages of using SSD
Advantages of using SSD
• SSD has no moving 
parts.
• Weight
• Short Access Time
Short Access Time
• Superior Kinetic Shock 
Resistance

9
*Photograph from opussolution.net
 Weight
Weight (grams)
HDD vs SSD
180
160
140 134 6666667
134.6666667

120 40% less
100
82.56666667 HDD
80
SSD
60
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 Average

10
*Data found from www.amazon.com
 Short Access Time of SSD
Short Access Time of SSD
Access time for HDD Access time for SSD
= spin up time  = spin up time 
+ seek time  + seek time 
+ rotational delay 
y + rotational delay 
y
+ transfer time + transfer time

11
 Average Read Transfer Performance
Mb/s
HDD vs SSD
140

120 114.44

100
90% faster
80
60 98
60.98
60 HDD
40 SSD

20

0
Most
recent
models

12
*Data found from www.tomshardware.com
 Average Write Transfer Performance
Mb/s
HDD vs SSD
140

120

100 95 57
95.57

80 40% faster
60 31
60.31
60 HDD
40 SSD

20

0
Most
recent
models

13
*Data found from www.tomshardware.com
 Withholding Vibration (HDD)
Withholding Vibration
• Head is close to rotating 
platter
– 70 nm to 200 nm
• Platter is rotating at a 
high speed
• A thin film of high air 
A thin film of high air
pressure builds up
• Head lifts up
Head lifts up

14
 Withholding Vibration (HDD)
Withholding Vibration (HDD)
• When the hard drive is shaken,
– Temporal imbalance in air pressure
p p
– Lift < weight
• Head crash!
Head crash!
• Consequences of head crash
– Parts of platter become unusable
– Damaged head
g
– Dust particle created within the hard drive

15
 Withholding Vibration (SSD)
Withholding Vibration (SSD)
• Contains no moving parts
• Very little chance of causing failure 
Very little chance of causing failure

16
 Disadvantages of using SSD
Disadvantages of using SSD
• Price
• Amount of data storage
Amount of data storage

17
 Price
$
$800.00

$700.00

$600.00

$500.00

$400.00 HDD
$300.00 SSD

$200.00

$100.00

$0.00
250 Gb 160 Gb 120 Gb / 128 Gb 40 Gb / 32 GB

18
*Data from www.pricewatch.com and www.pricewatch.com
 Amount of Data Storage
Amount of Data Storage
SSD HDD
• 32 Gb maximum • Wide range of choice
– Due to price constraint of  – 160 ~ 250 Gb for higher end 
NetBook products
• Under $ 500
Under $ 500 – 120 Gb
120 Gb and under for mid‐
d d f id
• Mostly 8 Gb and under range and low end products

19
 Summary
• Background on HDD, SSD and Netbook
• Advantages of using solid state drives
Advantages of using solid state drives
– Short Access Time
– Weight
W i h
– Superior Kinetic Shock Resistance
• Disadvantages of using solid state drives
– Price
– Amount of Data Storage

20
 Conclusion
• Hard disk drives inadequate for NetBooks
• Solid state drives as ideal storage device
Solid state drives as ideal storage device
– Short Access Time
– Weight
W i h
– Superior Kinetic Shock Resistance

21