Density (computer storage)
measure of the quantity of information bits that can be stored on a given length of track, area of surface, or in a given volume of a computer storage medium
Density is a measure of the quantity of information bits that can be stored on a given physical space of a computer storage medium. There are three types of density: length (linear density) of track, area of the surface (areal density), or in a given volume (volumetric density).
Generally, higher density is more desirable, for it allows more data to be stored in the same physical space. Density therefore has a direct relationship to storage capacity of a given medium. Density also generally affects the performance within a particular medium, as well as price.
Storage device classes
Solid state media
Solid state drives use flash memory to store non-volatile media. They are the latest form of mass produced storage and rival magnetic disk media. Solid state media data is saved to a pool of NAND flash. NAND itself is made up of what are called floating gate transistors. Unlike the transistor designs used in DRAM, which must be refreshed multiple times per second, NAND flash is designed to retain its charge state even when not powered up.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Density (computer storage)” as measure of the quantity of information bits that can be stored on a given length of track, area of surface, or in a given volume of a computer storage medium. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q337445. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Density (computer storage)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.