JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced that its JC-64.8 Subcommittee for Solid State Drives is currently engaged in an effort to update the JESD218 standard for Solid State Drive Requirements and Endurance Test Method. Originally published in September 2010 and revised in February 2011, the new update to JESD218 will primarily address improvements in test methodologies to better reflect product expectations, reduce testing options to remove unused methods, and add clarifications to improve the readability and understanding of test methods and artifacts caused by accelerated testing. Additional topics are discussed when brought up by task group participants. JEDEC strongly encourages all interested parties to contact the JEDEC office at 703-907-7560 to become involved with SSD standards development.

JESD218 Solid-State Drive Requirements and Endurance Test Method defines the conditions of use and corresponding endurance verification requirements for both Client and Enterprise application classes, as well as providing a standard endurance rating. Workloads are described in a separate, related document: JESD219 Solid-State Drive Endurance Workloads. Both JESD218 and JESD219 are available for free download from the JEDEC website.

“The industry effort to update JESD218 has been underway for some time, and JEDEC welcomes participation in this critical standards development activity,” said Mian Quddus, Chairman, JEDEC Board of Directors. “The recent attention this standard received following an erroneous understanding of the retention data (thoroughly debunked here) underscores how essential defining meaningful, real-life, endurance and reliability metrics are for SSD products.”