What is Solid-State Drive (SSD)?

A solid-state drive (SSD) is an advanced type of computer storage device that is much faster than its traditional hard disk drive (HDD) counterpart because it uses flash memory instead of spinning and moveable components like HDDs. SSDs are in many ways responsible for a significant increase in computer speeds because of their low read-access times and fast throughput. SSDs were first developed in the late 1970s but were too large and too expensive to mass produce for everyday retail consumption. However, since the early 2010s, SSDs have been sold in computers that are accessible to the everyday consumer.