According to IHS iSuppli the market for cache SSDs will "explode" within the next few years, as growing ultrabook sales should boost demand from 881000 units in 2011 to 25.7 million in 2012.
A cache SSD looks like a regular SSD consisting entirely of NAND flash. It is independent storage but runs alongside a separate HDD to allow for faster boot-up times and improved performance. The technology first hit the market in 2011 and is a cheaper means for enhancing system performance-- a cache SSD paired with a 500GB HDD costs as much as a 120GB SSD ($160) according to the analyst.
iSuppli says 2013 cache SSD shipments will total 68.2M before growing to approximately 121M by 2015, with the majority of units ending up in ultrabooks-- out of the 25.7M units to ship in 2012, iSuppli estimates 22M will be present in ultrabooks.
The solution should prove popular for both price-conscious consumer and enterprise customers looking for a means to boosting performance without the need for top-line microprocessors or additional DRAM, iSuppli says. Cache SSD prices will also be low enough for mainstream adoption within the coming years, due to pressures from both ultrabooks and even more affordable "smartbooks" carrying mobile architectures and low-cost operating systems.
iSuppli concludes the cache drive segment is also the "primary reason" behind growing SSD shipments, which the analyst predicts will reach 46M in 2012 (up from 17M in 2011).
Go Cache SSD Shipments to Explode, Driven by Ultrabook Initiative (IHS iSUppli)
