JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, a leading standard-setting organization, on Wednesday announced that its subcommittee for solid-state drives (SSDs) will target the development of standards for SSDs in applications beyond conventional hard disk drive (HDD) form-factors. 

Even though it is very important to maintain compatibility of hard disk drives and solid-state drives, various embedded and innovative devices require new form-factors for storage devices and flash technology allows to pretty easily create storage devices in various form-factors, some of which are proprietary. In order to address the needs of non-traditional applications, the majority of which are various mobile devices, JEDEC is developing new "alternative" standards for SSDs. For example, some of them come in modules and do not feature cases.

“Deploying the first generation of SSDs in disk drive form factors leveraged the existing ecosystem and helped ensure supply chain flexibility. But with tablet PCs and ultra-thin portable notebooks emerging in client as well as high-density enterprise systems, there is a growing demand for SSDs in smaller form factors and an urgent need for related industry standards.  I strongly urge all interested companies to participate in the development of solid state drive standards within JEDEC," said Mian Quddus, JEDEC board of directors chairman. 

SSDs in module and/or package form offer the ability to meet the demand for a smaller form factor, z-height advantages, as well as potential cost savings over traditional hard drive form factors.  However, in order to fulfill this potential, widely adopted industry standards are seen as essential tools to reduce market confusion, facilitate broad adoption and alleviate product quality and reliability concerns.

“Momentum for adoption of embedded SSDs continues to grow and with the right OEM support, Gartner believes that embedded SSDs could potentially out ship traditional SSD form factor usage in mobile PCs by 2013,” according to Joseph Unsworth, a research director at Gartner.

Tags: SSD, mSATA, JEDEC