Increased Adoption of SSDs, USB 3.0 and DDR3 in 2010

John Tu, President and co-founder of Kingston Technology, discusses his predictions for developments in the memory market in 2010 and the trends that are likely to emerge, such as increased adoption of Solid State Drives (SSDs), USB 3.0 and DDR3 technology, all coupled with  improved confidence in the memory market.

SSD technology adoption to kick off
Greater production of NAND, and the wide adoption of Windows 7, which includes a number of SSD-specific performance-enhancing features, will make this technology a mainstream part of the PC storage portfolio for corporate and personal users in 2010. With complete bundle upgrade kits available on the market, implementing SSDs really is painless and straight forward with immediate performance gains.

Pricing & capacity evolution of SSDs
With pricing getting closer to the $100 barrier, we expect that prices for SSDs in 2010 will continue to decline as vendors refine production processes and NAND die shrinks continue. The lower pricing will directly result in capacity increases as costs come down. Thus, capacities of SSDs will continue to soar, with 1 Terabyte drives on the horizon already.

USB sticks capacity to further rise?
With 256GB capacities now available, have USB capacities been pushed to the limit? Of course not. In 2010 the trend will be to keep on increasing capacities as technological advancements of chip density will further push this tendency.

Improved confidence
and continued consolidation in the memory market
As predicted last year, consolidation in the DRAM market has taken its toll in 2009, helping the industry’s recovery. The continued increase in prices and the recent narrowing of chipmakers’ losses come as an indicator of the upturn in the industry. Yet, with consolidation expected to continue in 2010, caution will be a top priority for manufacturers. DRAM supply and demand is projected to improve in 2010 in junction with the general global economic resurgence.

Cloud Computing
The buzz around cloud computing reached its highest this year, with Gartner placing cloud computing at the peak of its hype cycle. However, widespread implementation of cloud services has not taken the industry by a storm yet, as enterprises still need to understand the real benefits and the best way to use the technology. Hype and confusion aside, there is not doubt in the industry that the operational and economic model of cloud computing will transform IT over the next few years. The road to economic recovery and increased IT budgets should help adoption of cloud services in late 2010.

Increase in power and costs savings IT equipments
The uptake of lower energy IT equipment, such as SSD drives, and higher capacity memory modules have proved that organisations are definitely looking further into the future, by investing to reap costs saving benefits over the next years. During the course of 2010, we will see more organisations upgrading and extending the use of their server and client systems as well as implementing technology, software and solutions to reduce overall costs and become much more efficient.

DDR3 Technology take up
JEDEC based DDR3 memory modules were launched by most manufacturers in the summer of 2007, however, as with most new technologies implementation has taken some time. It is predicted that DDR3 shipments will rise to account for more than half of the global DRAM market by the second quarter of next year. What is more, according to DRAMeXchange, DDR3 based platforms are expected to account for 90% of new systems sales by the end of 2010, leading the PC memory technology. For new PC users across the board, this means faster performance and lower power consumption.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0
USB 3.0 technology has been in the news for quite some time already, however we are yet to see a move from major vendors seeking to push USB 3.0 compatible motherboards. With specifications confirmed to support data transfer rates of up to 4.8GB/s, more than three times faster than a USB 2.0, this new interface will truly set a new standard and also push demand for high capacity USBs as data transfer times are reduced. The first boards supporting USB 3.0 have begun shipping, with compatible USB drives expected in 2010. How quickly this new interface will find its way into the market is yet to be seen. USB 2.0 will remain the major standard throughout 2010 with USB 3.0 becoming stronger in 2011.