Addressing the Critical Challenges and Opportunities for SSDs

SSDs are poised to be the "Next Big Thing" for NAND Flash memories. The progress in NAND Flash and SSDs' performance and endurance has been steadily improving. However, the expectations of many observers have not been met in terms of take-up in the market. Industry standards for SSDs targeting various applications, and accepted methods of measuring performance, are still 'in-progress' and unsatisfying. Despite rapid price reductions of NAND Flash and SSDs, the overall 'SSD value proposition' remains questionable in most HDD strongholds. This panel will discuss the compelling question: what chip, software, and system architecture improvements, or adoption strategies, do we need to see before SSDs 'fulfill their destiny', or do we need to reset expectations?