NAND Drive

NAND drives are high-capacity, high-speed, solid-state flash memory drives. Thanks to new advances in technology, these drives have been chosen to become the latest drive preference for laptop computers (hopefully in the near future). When comparing the NAND to other types of flash memory, NAND drives have several noteworthy advantages.

The term "NAND" refers to the architecture of the chip which differs it from NOR (NOT OR) flash memory. NOR flash memory is most widely used in devices in which small programs are executed in place rather than written to Random Access Memory (RAM). PDAs, cell phones, and similar devices function with the help of NOR flash memory. NOR flash memory is considered to be ideal for applications that require less memory and perform most of the work on unchanging code (for example, boot directions or operating systems).

However, for changing data, NAND drives are superior to NOR flash memory. The chip is designed to allow more memory to be included into the same size space, thus creating a product that is not only useful, but also very efficient. This allows NAND drives to write data into the disk at a greater speed, unlike the typical flash memory that must wipe out memory blocks before writing to them. NAND drives also boast a longer lifespan of more erase cycles. These features make NAND drives an ideal choice for high capacity storage and manipulation of changing data.

NAND drives also have several noted advantages when compared with more traditional hard drives. The solid-state nature of the drive is one of the core advantages. Solid-state refers to the fact that NAND drives do not have any moving parts that can break down. Secondly, NAND drives function much faster than traditional hard drives. Similar to USB flash drives, NAND drives do not make any noise while functioning. Finally, NAND drives consume less power, which is essential for laptop users.