Solid state storage uses semiconductor-based components with no moving parts to retain data without power, making it a fundamental technology in modern computing devices. This content covers the distinction between volatile and nonvolatile memory, how solid state electronics work, and the role of transistors and semiconductors in data storage.
Solid State Storage
A lot of our electronic products nowadays really rely heavily on long-term storage. Can you imagine taking your phone out and taking a picture, but then losing the picture because it does not have any long-term storage? So it is a pretty critical part to how we store data, things like this solid state drive.
When it comes to storing bits, we have both volatile memory, that is that temporary memory, and the nonvolatile, that is that long-term. If we were to unplug a device like your computer, what is stored in temporary memory goes away and we no longer have those bits. But the stuff stored in the long-term, nonvolatile, that sticks around for the next time we start up the computer.
There are two terms you should probably be familiar with: memory and storage. Both of these really have to deal with holding on to those bits, holding on to the data, so that way the computer can use it.
Now, you may see sometimes that long-term storage is associated with memory, and you may see temporary memory being associated with storage. But generally speaking, when you hear the term memory, what we are really talking about is that temporary storage, or RAM. When you hear the term storage, a lot of times that is referring to that long-term storage, when we are holding on to the data, when we unplug the computer it still holds on to it.
Here is a great example, even in the term nonvolatile memory, NVM. The M stands for memory, and denotes that long-term storage, even though when somebody mentions memory they are usually talking about the RAM of the computer.
Over time we have developed a lot of different ways to use solid state storage to store data, and here are some examples of those. I also will point out that RAM is a solid state technology, and if we use a battery to back up the information inside of RAM, what we have done is taken this volatile memory of RAM and turned it into nonvolatile. So that actually should be part of our list as well: that RAM with a battery backup could be considered nonvolatile.
So what is solid state? Let's just start out with the general sense of the term. The general sense of the term means it is not a fluid or a gas, that it is a solid.
Solid state electronics is a little different in its concept. It just essentially means that it does not really have moving parts. It is really anything that comes after the transistor. So we have got the transistors, the integrated circuits, the microprocessors; those are all solid state electronics. Versus the abacus, which is something that had moving parts on it. Same thing with the Babbage machine, or machines that have gears and that type of stuff. And then vacuum tubes do not necessarily have a lot of moving parts on them, but there are components to it that heat up and are really not what we consider a solid state.
So solid state electronics would be the transistors and on, or really things that are made from this semiconductor property. Semiconductors and transistors are made from silicon. Silicon is one of the most abundant elements that we find on this planet; we find it in sand.
This foil conducts electricity. This ceramic mug does not. We call this a conductor and we call this an insulator. A semiconductor is very interesting. It has some interesting properties to it, that is, we can control whether it conducts electricity or not. A semiconductor can conduct electricity sometimes, or act as an insulator at other times.
This is a transistor right here. It has got three conductors going into it, and then the block, which is the actual switch. We can think of a transistor like a switch.
This is a model of a transistor, and down here at the bottom is that semiconductor material. So if we apply power to one side, it will either get stopped at the semiconductor, because it is not allowing power through, or it will allow power to flow through this circuit. What we have right here at the top is the gate. That is what determines whether this semiconductor is going to allow electrons to pass through it or not. So whether we apply power to here or not will determine whether this goes through or not. Essentially what it is, is that this is the switch right here, and it turns on and off this circuit.
So solid state storage is just the idea of using that same semiconductor material.
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