JEDEC, a developer of standards for the microelectronics industry, on Friday revealed selected highlights of its widely anticipated, upcoming standards for solid state drives (SSDs) at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. There will be four classes of SSDs with different requirements for reliability and performance.

“It’s clear that comprehensive standards for solid state drives must be set in order to ensure complete confidence in the quality and reliability of SSDs. JEDEC’s focus on defining capacity, workload and endurance in the upcoming specifications will help ensure the promise of SSDs as a fast-growing, rugged and versatile storage solution can be fully realized,” said Mian Quddus, chairman of the JEDEC board of directors.

The upcoming standard will define SSD capacity using a near-decimal value like that defined for hard disk drives, which will provide easier migration at the system level for drives with common interfaces.  There will be four application classes for SSDs:

• Client Mobile
• Client Standard
• Enterprise Standard
• Enterprise Performance

The new standard will define specific requirements for each application class, and will create a SSD Endurance Rating that will provide a standard comparison for SSDs based on application class.

SSDs offer high-performance, reliable storage solutions for countless consumer devices.  However, widely adopted industry standards are seen as essential in establishing customer confidence in solid-state drives as reliable storage solutions within real world environments.  JEDEC has taken the lead in the SSD standards development effort through its JC-64.8 Subcommittee for Solid State Drives, and is working quickly to establish open industry standards that will encompass SSD capacity, form factors and endurance.

Tags: SSD, Flash, JEDEC