This post was originally published on Pure Storage
When solid state hybrid drives (SSHDs) first hit the markets in the early 2000s, they were priced competitively between cheap hard disk drives (HDDs) and performant solid state drives (SSDs), giving consumers a happy compromise between the two technologies. But flash is a lot cheaper today than it was in those early years. In this article we’ll take a closer look at SSHDs and whether they still have a place in storage markets.
What Is an SSHD?
An SSHD is a storage device that combines the storage capacity of traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) with the speed of solid-state drives (SSDs). It integrates a small amount of NAND flash memory (like that in SSDs) with the spinning disks of an HDD. The drive’s controller intelligently caches frequently accessed data in the NAND flash, improving overall performance and boot times. While not as fast as pure SSDs, SSHDs aim to offer a cost-effective balance between speed and storage capacity.
The key idea behind the hybrid storage model is to leverage the fast caching capabilities of NAND memory for your most frequently accessed data, while using the cheaper spinning disk drive to store the bulk capacity of your data long-term. Caching makes
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