Strong and Silent, the Solid State Personal Computer
A “Solid State” computer is one with little or no moving parts; a fanless system using flash storage or an EPROM based solution as opposed to a typical spinning platter type hard drive. Moving parts have the highest likelihood of failure, due to friction, which also produces heat. Moving parts tend to consume more energy, and make noise. A motionless solid-state computer is completely silent, rugged, and highly energy efficient.
Another advantage to solid state computing is that of durability. Solid-state computer systems tend to be far more rugged and tolerant of environmental conditions that would damage or destroy conventional systems. It comes as no surprise that the most significant initial interest in solid state computing came from the military and NASA.
Part of the key to solid state computing is in the non-volatile storage medium. A traditional spinning platter hard drive, such as what is in your common personal computer, has moving parts, which wear down and eventually fail. Solid-state storage utilizes a type of memory with the advantages of RAM, yet without the read only pitfall of ROM.
Once there were only two types of memory, RAM (Random Access Memory) and ROM (Read Only Memory). With ROM memory, data is permanently written to the chip and cannot be changed. RAM memory can be read and written nearly infinitely but only when the computer is powered on. When the computer is turned off, anything saved in RAM is lost.
On a typical home computer, the BIOS is on ROM, which is needed for the computer to first boot. RAM is used as “workspace” for the operating system and running programs. Your hard drive is where your data is saved when you create files and folders for later retrieval.
When a company called MSystems invented the first flash memory in 1995, they provided what was basically like RAM that becomes ROM when the computer is off, and RAM again when the computer is turned back on; data stored on a chip, rewritable, and persistent in the absence of power. Unfortunately, their NOR flash memory was cost prohibitive and was not nearly as fast as RAM or ROM. They made storage drives using their NOR flash memory that far exceeded the reliability of conventional spinning platter hard drives.
USB thumb drives and compact flash memory was introduced utilizing a less expensive type of flash memory called NAND flash. NAND flash memory is cheaper to produce and has ushered in what will soon be the age of affordable solid-state storage, the end to the old spinning platter hard drive.
NAND based flash memory does have a limitation in the number of times that data can be erased and written. The limitation in today’s flash memory is typically around one million writes or more.
Replacing the spinning platter hard drive with a flash drive is only part of constructing a solid-state computer. Advanced cooling with heat sinks and a well designed enclosure facilitating passive air flow also go into the design of a completely friction free no-moving-parts computer system.
Although some could argue that early gaming systems such as the Atari 2600 may be an example of a solid-state computer, the solid state PC has been a long time coming. The popularity of mobile computing devices and laptop computers are, today, a powerful force in driving advancements in solid-state technology. Consider the flash drives used in digital cameras and PDA’s for example.
The use of solid-state technology is a good fit for portable devices and laptop computers. Remove the hard drive and replace it with solid state storage, use an advanced, cool running, low power CPU, eliminate the need for cooling fans, and you have an energy efficient device that can run on battery power many times longer than one using conventional “moving parts” technology.
You will likely observe CPU speed reduction to facilitate cooler operation in a solid-state computer. However, performance lost in one area can be picked up in another. Solid-state storage has much higher access speed as compared to traditional spinning platter hard drives, reading and writing data considerably faster. Cool running CPU speeds will advance and the chips will likely lag only a few hundred megahertz behind their hot running bleeding edge big brothers.
Although over-clockers and gamers will likely see advantages in using a hybrid of solid state and conventional computer components, business oriented consumers, where reliability and efficiency are paramount, will welcome an all solid state computer.
There are many examples of solid-state computing devices already widely used in the market today. However, they are specialized devices and not exactly an example of a “personal computer.” When people think of a PC, they are usually looking for something to put on the desk and hook up a monitor and keyboard to, or flip open to expose the keyboard and LCD screen in the portable version.
Smaller personal computing devices (like the PDA) are already solid state. Next will likely be laptop and notebook computers that will be more rugged and have unprecedented battery life. Following that, servers will likely become solid state so they benefit from the reliability and possibly become completely maintenance free.
The low cost solid-state personal computer for the desktop is just on the horizon and almost within hands reach. Its arrival can come none too soon and should be welcomed with open arms by most end users at home and in the office.
trc contributor: Derek Winterstien
*View the TRC Wiki Solid State Computer Suppliers and Manufacturers list for information on “where to buy” and some available solid state systems.