The remarkable SSD: A personal perspective

Like many in my age group who I meet, I got my start with computers solely due to video games. A brand-new Intel 80286 computer designated for my dad’s home office quickly became the MS-DOS gaming platform of my youth. I learned all about navigating the FAT file system, modifying autoexec.bat and config.sys files with the primary goal of getting Zork, King’s Quest I and other games to run properly.

That started a decades-long obsession with the latest and greatest in computing technology, from building my first 486 in college to the most recent upgrade just several months ago. Almost all of them with a primary focus on pushing the envelope of what’s possible and rarely skipping more than two CPU generations. Fear of missing out is real!

In the four decades since that first encounter with a PC, I’ve invested far more money than I care to think about in upgrading. However, the one upgrade that stands out more than any other was the day I installed my first solid state drive (SSD). For someone accustomed to upgrading and getting my hands on the latest technology, it was completely revolutionary! A mere 30GB in size, it loaded the Windows operating system faster than I ever imagined possible. Moving and accessing data became an enjoyable experience instead of a dreaded event.

In the years that have passed since that monumental technological leap, I found myself making a career out of my passion for computers and technology and eventually found my way to the home of the memory leader that’s ahead of the curve in Micron Technology.

As the senior enterprise architect for technology, engineering & innovation at Micron, it’s my passion to drive business capabilities and objectives through the application and utilization of technology. We are at an incredible technological tipping point in the world today with the remarkable SSD playing a foundational role! There are 60TB drives available today from Micron with substantially larger capacities just over the horizon. The ubiquitous SCSI drives found in data centers when I started my career that could support a throughput of 160MB/s at the time have been eclipsed by the latest Micron 9550 SSD, which can provide 14GB/s (yes, gigabytes!) sequential reads and 10GB/s sequential writes!

When combined with the modern compute platforms of today it’s possible to achieve 256 cores and up to 1.92PB raw storage capacity in a single common 2u host. That raw performance and density, when combined with technologies like hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and software-defined storage, allow companies, including Micron, to simplify and consolidate infrastructure while scaling to extreme limits that are being driven by Gen AI and other emerging technologies.

The future of technology has never been more exciting or mind-blowing! Micron SSDs will be at the forefront of those advancements, providing platforms instantaneous access to massive amounts of data and scaling to capacities that seemed impossible not that long ago. That SSD from my past has evolved into something even more capable, continuing to revolutionize the technology of today and the future.