Delana Hallstedt How is a solid-state drive more efficient? Immobility. It’s as easy as that. Solid-state drives (SSDs), although portable, are very portable. An SSD isn’t mobile on the inside. This makes it more efficient than other storage devices. It wouldn’t be a blog post without trying to show you some similitude. I’ll also include a few picturesque details that will help you understand how it all works.
Here we go! Let’s look at this question in terms music files, how they can be accessed, played and the time frame involved.
Our first scenario will take us back in time, but not too much. We’ll use a vintage vinyl record player as our example. It was around the 1950s-1980s. Vinyl records were made at different speeds and sizes. We’ll be focusing on a 12-inch record at 78 revolutions per hour (rpm) for our purposes. For those who have never seen a record player in action: You place the record on the turntable and power it on. The turntable spins at the chosen speed, in this case 78 rpms. The tonearm lifts up and then moves over-top of the record. Next, it drops down gently, placing the needle in contact. This is when you start to hear static noises coming from the speakers. To skip to the next track, you would need to manually lift the tonearm and place it back at the desired track’s beginning point. This was often identified by a small section between the grooves. It was a hit-and miss operation. You might end up with the tail end of the song you were listening to or begin the song from the beginning. If the player was able to handle multiple records, the tonearm will return to its original position, the next album will drop onto the turntable, and the tonearm will move back into place over the record. The process would then begin all over again. It can take several seconds to change from one record to the next. Depending on how bright the room is, your eyesight and your ability to set the tonearm in the right spot without scratching the record, it could take some time to access a particular song. You were not allowed to play with the record if you were younger or if it belonged to an older sibling. A record that has been scratched too many times could become unplayable.
Let’s move on to the second scenario. We’ll use a generic MP3 player. The device is a digital music player that stores digital music files on flash memory. These digital files can be accessed via a visualized directory in the content library. Navigate through the songs and choose the track you want. The non-staticy music will instantly be sent to your speakers, headset or other output device. You can either click the “next” button to change to the next track or choose randomly from the directory. You can instantly start playing a track by tapping, clicking, or selecting it. Although there are no moving parts inside, you might have moving parts controlling the screen that allows you to scroll through the library. Each track is stored at a specific location in the flash storage. Selecting the track will play it from that location. It’s ready to play, no waiting. Instant.
A standard hard-disk drive (HDD), is very similar to a record player in terms of operation.
