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Ask HN: Should SSDs be accessed like a filesystem or a memory?

2 points by supahfly_remix ↗ HN
Macbook Air SSD memory sticks look just like DRAM sticks to me (see link), but they use a different abstraction to access them (SATA vs. DDR). Are the requirements that drove the original use of ATA still applicable with the SSD memory form-factor (e.g., seek times, etc.)?

http://notebooks.com/2010/11/08/toshiba-introduces-macbook-air-style-ssds/

2 comments

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Robin_Message
Despite looking like memory, SSDs are not much like DRAM. They are also not much like disks either. I suspect you will see new protocols for accessing them eventually, similar to NCQ on SATA drives.
supahfly_remix
Right. For one thing, SATA (serialized ATA) was originally developed because the disk drive was located away from the motherboard, so I could see this interface looking more like a DDR.

How about other factors, like seek time?