hybrid SSD?

[exdeath]

So we are all aware of the issue of TLC and write endurance declining as density increases.

Why not a hybrid SSD?

1 TB TLC with 64-128 GB of SLC or 32nm MLC.

Firmware smart enough to keep dynamic data in the high density NAND, less dynamic data in TLC, swapping as needed.

Honestly haven't investigated TLC. With high enough capacity and wear leveling it might not even be worth bothering.

I know write endurance and "ssds wearing out" in general is blown out of proportion by the masses that don't understand the technology, but there seems to be genuine concern with TLC and further even amongst those in the know. How serious is it?

 

[Cerb]

Why not a hybrid SSD?

1 TB TLC with 64-128 GB of SLC or 32nm MLC.

Cost, I would guess. 6.4% is nearly the whole OP space for most consumer drives, and half of what the fast ones use. But, also...32nm? We're on ~20nm, now, and ~15nm is already in the pipe, plus lots of 3D and stacking.

The 840 Evo uses a fixed amount of space on their TLC as pseudo-SLC cache (pSLC form here on). That's a large part of what allows it such higher performance than the older 840.
Some OCZ drives used Toshiba MLC as pSLC up to half space used. The Toshiba Q series appears to do the same, and whether or not it buffers writes after that as pSLC is unknown, TMK.
The Sandisk Ultra Plus and Extreme II dynamically decide how much of the factory OP space to use, at any given time, as pSLC ("nCache" is their marketing term for it).

I know write endurance and "ssds wearing out" in general is blown out of proportion by the masses that don't understand the technology, but there seems to be genuine concern with TLC and further even amongst those in the know. How serious is it?

http://techreport.com/review/25889/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-500tb-update
For consumer workloads, it looks pretty good, but concern as NAND gets smaller might not be unwarranted. Plus, so far, the TLC drives were only cheaper than MLC drives for a very short period of time. Clearly, IMFT can make MLC cheap enough to undercut Samsung with their TLC, which they are awfully proud of.

 

[corkyg]

Western Digital has just released their Black 2 - a hybrid with a 120GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD integrated in a single 2.5=in x 9.5mm drive. A bit pricey, but if you have a laptop with only one HDD slot, it could be very useful.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822236642