Seagate working to improve SSD life expectancy

Seagate is planning to enter the solid state disk market for enterprises in 2009 but before the company rolls out its first SSDs it will make sure these drives are reliable. The Tech Report writes the firm is hard at work on SSD endurance:

Seagate has no illusions about that potential hurdle, and it's already working on standards for SSD endurance. Says Seagate Marketing Development Senior Manager Rich Vignes, "There isn't really a clear way of describing endurance or life expectancy of a solid-state drive. So, we're working on that as an industry standard [through JEDEC]." Formerly known as the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, JEDEC already develops and issues standards for system memory.

In addition to working with standards bodies, Seagate plans to use some its own special sauce to make sure its SSDs last. Vignes mentioned, "Some of the skills we've picked up along the way, to deal with imperfect media, has applicability to dealing with imperfect media on NAND." The company's efforts could spur the industry as a whole, too. "As companies like Seagate start to demonstrate field-proven reliability and endurance in enterprise applications, we'll overcome those (solid-state drive) endurance fears," he added.