Solid State Disk Guide

About Solid State Disks

A solid state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. A SSD emulates a conventional hard disk drive, thus easily replacing it in any application.

With no moving parts, a solid state drive largely eliminates seek time, latency and other electro-mechanical delays and failures associated with a conventional hard disk drive.

The Mtron Solid State Disks have holes drilled where they would be on a regular disk, and power and data connectors in the right places. Standard sizes are available, 2.5inch and 3.5inch (1.8inch end of 2007).

The Mtron's are plug-and-play, no drivers are required.
Your computer, from the BIOS to the operating system will recognize the Mtron SSD as a bootable drive but it just runs much faster.

To use your Mtron with the Microsoft Vista ReadyBoost feature, connect the disk to an USB port (internal or external). See Vista ReadyBoost below. Because Mtron's SSDs are flash memory, they are instantly accessible (<0.1ms access time!).

Benefits of Mtron Solid State Disks

Lack of mechanical parts makes the Mtron SSD completely silent with lower power consumption and heat production.

Mtron SSD's run much cooler and they concume a fraction of the power of a regular mechanical hard disk which makes the Mtron's ideal for portable use, desktop use and massive server farms.

Since the Mtron solid state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data, each sector is instant accessible at 0.1ms! The 74GB 10,000 RPM Western Digital Raptor X Hard Disk has an access time of 8.1ms, so the Mtron SSD is 81x faster!

Mtron SSD's have a better mechanical reliability – Lack of mechanical parts results in less wear and tear. High level of ability to endure extreme shock, high altitude, vibration and temperatures, which apply to laptops and other mobile devices, or when transported. Faster startup since no spin-up is required.

Far faster than conventional disks on random I/O.

Faster boot and application launch time when hard disk seeks are the limiting factor. Mtron SSDs will last >140 YEARS if you write 50GB per day to them.

Mtron SSD's operate in a wider temperature environment (0°C to 70°C) than standard hard disks and can operate with no altitude limitations, like the normal hard disks who will fail above 3km. So pilots can use the Mron's in their laptops. 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 hour MTBF (Mean time between failures (MTBF) is the mean (average) time between failures of a system) rating mean your computer will become obsolete before the Mtron SSD fails. Solid State disks can resist 1000-1500G's of operating shock.

Uses of the Mtron Solid State Disks

Any system will run faster on an Mtron Solid State Disk.

Use:

Notebook/portable use: battery life improvement, Mtron ssd's consume less power, combination high performance and massive storage: use an Mtron solid state disk for the operating system and a secondary hard disk for data storage.

Military/industrial: Mtron ssd's: a must for critical storage, they can resist 1000-1500G's of operating shock and can endure severe vibration that would kill a standard hard drive.

Aviation/marine/field use: Mtron SSD's operate in a wider temperature environment (0°C to 70°C) than standard hard disks and can operate with no altitude limitations, like the normal hard disks who will fail above 3km. So pilots can use the Mron's in their laptops.

Database/servers: Fragementation does not affect the mtron ssd and every sector is instant accessible.

How can the cost of state disk technology be justified?

First an explanation of why solid state disk technology is more expensive:

Market size:

Unit volumes of SSD products sold are very small in comparison to the PC, Workstation and Server markets as a whole; therefore Engineering, Manufacturing, Marketing, and Support Service costs/unit are much higher than their mechanical disk drive counterpart.

Cost Justification:

Reliability: A SSD has no mechanical failure points, therefore reliability issues associated with mechanical drives are eliminated. Time Saving: Example, below, of a common business problem: 100 users of a common database. Problem, long wait times associated with retrieving/storing information on database server. Solution: Place database on SSD to eliminate/reduce wait times.

Conservative Example:

Reducing wait times save each user 10 minutes/day Savings =100 users x 10 minutes/day x 25 euro/hour average overhead rate = 416 euro/day = 2080 euro/week = 8320 euro /month=104,000euro /year

Summary:

Mechanical drives maybe penny wise, but can prove to be pound-foolish.

Workstations/gaming/High-performance computers: much faster boot and application loading of your computer. Spectacular improvement of load times of every program. Once you worked with an Mtron ssd, there is no way back.

Which Operating System

Mtron SSD's Work with Microsoft Windows, Vista, Linux, and Apple MacBook / Macbook Pro (OS X 10.5 Leopard required).

Raid:

Mtron SSD's work with RAID so they can achieve unlimited capacity. Tested RAID card list.

Difference between MOBI Series 3000 and PRO Series 7000:

Mtron Mobi 3000 Series have a sustained read of 100MB/s and a sustained write of 80MB/s. The casing is plastic and the warranty is 3 years.

The Mtron Pro 7000 Series are even faster: sustained read of 120MB/s and sustained write of 100MB/s. The casing is aluminium and the warranty is 5 years. The PRO 7000 Series are also tested to run 24/7.

The Mtron Pro 7500 Series are the fastest: sustained read of 130MB/s and sustained write of 120MB/s. The casing is aluminium and the warranty is 5 years. The PRO 7500 Series are also tested to run 24/7. This is the ultimate Solid State Disk!

Vista ReadyBoost

Windows ReadyBoost improves system memory and boosts performance.

Adding system memory (typically referred to as RAM) is often the best way to improve a PC's performance, since more memory means more applications are ready to run without accessing the hard drive.

However, upgrading memory can be difficult and costly, and some machines have limited memory expansion capabilities, making it impossible to add RAM.

Windows Vista introduces Windows ReadyBoost, a new concept in adding memory to a system. You can use non-volatile flash memory, such as that on a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, to improve performance without having to add additional memory "under the hood."

The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache—that is, memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive. Windows ReadyBoost relies on the intelligent memory management of Windows SuperFetch and can significantly improve system responsiveness.

It's easy to use Windows ReadyBoost. When a removable memory device such as a USB flash drive or a secure digital (SD) memory card is first inserted into a port, Windows Vista checks to see if its performance is fast enough to work with Windows ReadyBoost. If so, you are asked if you want to use this device to speed up system performance. You can choose to allocate part of a USB drive's memory to speed up performance and use the remainder to store files.