The Difference Between HDDs and SSDs

All about semiconductor technology, in plain and easy English! Samsung Semiconstory’s ‘Semiconductors 101’ corner brings easy-to-understand semiconductor science. Our first episode is about the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and SSD (Solid State Drive), the king and queen of non-volatile storage media. HDDs, or more familiarly ‘hard drives’, have been the high-capacity PC storage medium of choice for a long time. But in recent years, a rapid transition to SSDs is bringing about a storage medium paradigm shift. HDDs and SSDs are alike, but also fundamentally different. An HDD is to vinyl as an SSD is to MP3!

What’s your preferred device for playing music? While smartphones are the most widespread music playback devices today, music playback technology has come a long way, from LP vinyl records and cassette tapes to MP3 files. If an HDD were vinyl, then an SSD would be MP3. Closely examining an LP record reveals many fine grooves on the surface. Once a record is placed on a turntable and made to spin, the needle reads the grooves and plays back the music. An HDD works on the same principle. An HDD consists of a platter, a circular magnetic disc, and a head which endlessly moves about the surface of the platter. Just like the needle on an LP player reads the grooves on a record, the head of an HDD reads and writes data on a spinning platter. The SSD works like MP3 files. While LP records use physical rotation, MP3 files allow us to playback music digitally. Likewise, SSDs use memory semiconductors to overcome the physical limitations of HDDs. Let’s examine the differences between these two storage medium types in a bit more detail. HDDs (Hard Disk Drives): Data storage on spinning discs

You might have heard something spinning when you turn on your PC at home. This is none other than the sound of the platter on your HDD revving up. These platters are what an HDD uses to store data. A motor physically spins the platter around, causing noise. This spinning causes high power consumption, and generates a fair bit of heat as well. HDDs are also relatively slow in terms of data processing speed. Naturally, there is a limit to how fast the platter can spin, and it also takes time for the head to move to the position where a piece of data that needs to be processed is stored. An HDD is also sensitive to impact, which can damage the head and other internal workings. SSDs (Solid State Drives): Data storage on memory semiconductors

SSDs overcome the limitations of HDDs by using memory semiconductors (NAND flash) to store data. The greatest difference are the incomparably fast data read/write speeds. No motor means no noise, less power consumption, and cool operation. No moving parts inside means less chances of damage by external impact, keeping data safe. SSD performance improves with memory semiconductor technology, and therefore the solid state drive has almost infinite potential for progress. Samsung’s proprietary technologies lead the SSD industry. The ‘870 QVO’, launched in July, was the first-ever consumer SATA interface-based SSD in the industry to reach the 8TB capacity mark. At this rate, it won’t be long until every last HDD in the world will be replaced by an SSD. We’ve taken a brief look at the concept of HDDs and SSDs, as well as some differences between the two. This is just our first episode of semiconductor science made easy; stay in tune for more!