Shadowing Practice: How do SSDs Work? | How does your Smartphone store data? | Insanely Complex Nanoscopic Structures! - Learn English Speaking with Video

It's hard to believe that all your photos, videos, music, messages and apps can be stored in the palm of your hand.

And to most of us, it's a mystery how so much information can fit in such a small space.

But it might not seem so surprising

when you see the complexity inside your smartphone

or the inside of this one terabyte solid state drive commonly found in laptops or computers.

However, as seeing the outside of this memory storage microchip tells us little about how these smartphones

and solid -state drives can store tens of thousands of photos and files,

let's explore deeper and zoom in until we get to a nanoscopic view.

And it's here that we can see the structures called VNAND that hold all the data in your smartphone and computer.

Here's where the real magic happens.

Every picture, message, and bit of information gets saved as quantities of electrons inside these memory cells,

which are called charge -trapped flash.

And in this episode, we'll learn how smartphone memory and solid -state drives work.

Now, hold on.

These insanely small and intricate structures seem very complex.

And yeah, they are.

I'm not going to say this marvel of engineering is simple, but you have to trust me.

Stick around.

Watch closely.

Maybe watch this video twice.

And by the end of it, this technology will amaze you.

It'll blow your mind at least twice over.

And yeah, you'll have a thorough understanding as to how such a small device can store weeks of high -quality video,

tens of thousands of pictures or hundreds of thousands of songs in such an itty -bitty little space.

So, let's get started.

We're going to use a real -life example and explore how it works

when you save a picture to your smartphone or computer.

First, this picture is made up of pixels, and each pixel has a color.

So let's zoom in so that we can see the individual pixels.

The color of every pixel is defined by a combination of three numbers, ranging from 0 to 255,

each representing red, green, or blue.

For example, the numbers would be 55, 53, 55 for this pixel's color right here,

and then 124, 121, and 119 for this pixel.

Each of these three numbers from 0 to 255 is represented by 8 bits in binary,

or 8 ones and zeros, you know, because computers work in binary.

So three colors, red, green, and blue, and 8 bits each,

means each pixel takes 24 bits to define its color.

This picture is a grid of colored pixels.

So let's turn it into a grid of values, kind of like a spreadsheet in Excel, but called an array instead of a spreadsheet.

This array of bits is what your computer cares about,

and, non -coincidentally, it's also the information that the camera on my smartphone recorded when I took the picture.

One quick note.

If you want to see the pixels in any picture, just open it in an image editing program like Paint,

or 3D Paint in this case, and zoom in.

And then if you want to see the red, green, and blue, or RGB values, just use the eyedropper, click on a pixel,

and then click on the Edit Color option.

Right here you can see the three values for red, green, and blue, and the resulting color.

Okay, with that covered, let's get back to the episode.

First, we're going to zoom out to see the full picture, which is 3 ,024 pixels wide and 4 ,032 pixels tall,

which is a total of around 12 million pixels,

or 12 megapixels, which relates to the resolution of the 12 megapixel camera on my smartphone.

Next, by doing some multiplication, we calculate that an array of this size, where each pixel is defined by 24 bits,

or 24 zeros or ones,

only requires 293 million bits or a unique set of 293 million zeros or ones.

That's a ton of bits.

So let's figure out how your smartphone or the solid -state drive seamlessly stores every single one of them.

Okay, so let's open up that solid -state drive again and zoom into a simplified nanoscopic view,

kind of like the one we had earlier.

It's here that we can see the memory cells that are used in every single one of your smartphones or tablets.

as well as inside the solid -state drive in your computer.

This is the basic unit of a computer's long -term memory storage, and it's called charge -trap flash memory.

So, how does it work?

Well, in each cell, we can store information by placing different levels of electrons onto a charge -trap,

which is the key component inside the memory cell.

Older technology could only store two different levels of electrons.

A lot of electrons or very few electrons, which were used to store a single bit as a one or zero.

However,

engineers have been developing more finely tuned capabilities for trapping and measuring different amounts of electrons or charges onto the charge trap.

Most memory cells in 2020 can hold eight different levels, but newer technology can have 16 different levels of electrons.

This means that a single cell, instead of holding only one bit as a lot of electrons or no electrons, can now hold three or more bits.

For this example, we're going to stick with three bits.

So, in this cell, if we were to have very few electrons on it, it would be 1, 1,

1, while some electrons get designated as 1, 0, 0 and a lot of electrons are zero zero zero.

There are eight different levels for all the various amounts of electron charges

that our charge trap can be set or written to.

The key to the charge trap is that it is specially designed

so that after it gets charged with electrons it can hold onto those electrons for decades

which is how information is saved or written to the solid state drive.

I mean, it's called a charge trap for a reason.

It traps electrons, or charges, for years on end.

And in order to read the information, the electron charge level is measured and the amount of charge on the charge trap is unchanged.

However, in order to erase the contents of a memory cell, all the electron charges are forcibly removed from the charge trap,

returning it to its lowest level, which is 1, 1, 1, and leaving no excess electron charges behind.

Let's move on and explore how these memory cells are organized, so that we can store more than three bits of information.

After we zoom out a little, you can see that the memory cells are stacked vertically.

This is where the vertical part in vertical NAND or VNAND comes from.

This stack of memory cells, which is technically called a string, is composed of 10 charge -trap flash cells layered one on top of another.

When information is written to or read from a string, only one cell can be activated at any given time.

And to do that, we use separate control gates attached to every layer in the string.

It works like this.

The bottom control gate first says, Hey you, charge trap 1, what's your electron charge level at?

Then the bottom cell sends that information through the center of the string up to the information highway at the top, which is technically called a bit line.

Then the next control gate for the second layer asks for the charge level in the second cell, and so on up the string,

each cell sending their information up to the highway or bit line.

The same kind of sequence happens when charges are being added to a charge trap, which is how information is written to a memory cell.

The main thing is that only one layer in the string is either written to or read from at any given time.

Let's move on in complexity.

Next, we duplicate this string 32 times, and this gets us a page of strings.

Let's review some terminology.

100

This is a memory cell and this is a string.

101

And now here we have a page and we're going to call this entire page's strings a row.

102

When we duplicate the string, we also duplicate the bit line 32 times.

103

However, rather than duplicate the control gates, we're going to have every cell in the same page share a common control gate.

104

This makes it so that when information is written to or read from a row, an entire page composed of 32 adjacent cells,

105

all in the same layer, are activated at the same time.

106

Let's step up in complexity again.

107

Next, we duplicate these rows six times until we get a block.

108

But we're going to do it 12 times so we can see two blocks.

109

OK, so again, here we have a column, here's a row, and this is a layer.

110

And now, here's a cell, and here's a string.

111

Next, we have a page, and finally we have a block.

112

We're going to connect the tops of each string in a column together.

113

So they all share the same bit line, and our bit line is looking like a highway now. In addition,

114

we have to add a control gate that selects between rows

115

so that only one row is using the bit line at a time.

116

These are called bit line selectors.

117

As discussed, these bit lines are like highways, and the selectors at the top act as traffic lights

118

that mediate the flow of information so that only a single row can use the highway or is active at a time.

119

Similarly, the control gates attached to each layer act as traffic lights for the layers.

120

With bitline selectors along the tops of each row and control gate selectors along each layer,

121

the solid -state drive can read from or write to a single page at any given time.

122

Additionally, in order to connect to the bitline selectors and control gate selectors,

123

there are wires that drop down from above and run perpendicular to the bit lines.

124

So, let's quickly recap.

125

Eight different levels of electrons are placed on charge traps in order to store three bits of information.

126

These charge trap flash memory cells are stacked into strings,

127

10 cells tall, which are duplicated into pages of 32 strings in a row.

128

Next, those pages of strings are duplicated until we have a block six rows deep.

129

And here we're showing two blocks.

130

Doing some quick multiplication, we find

131

that there are 3 ,840 memory cells here capable of storing a total of 11 ,520 bits.

132

With each pixel in our picture requiring 24 bits,

133

that means that we can store 480 pixels or this much of our overall picture.

134

That means you need about 25 ,000 times the size of this layout to store the contents of this single picture.

135

And here's where we learn about the actual size of a memory chip.

136

All the principles we've discussed remain the same, so keep those in mind.

137

It's just that the size is much more extensive than we discussed in our example.

138

It's hard to pin down exact numbers because manufacturers are continually improving their designs

139

and they're very secretive regarding what their designs look like.

140

But I'll tell you what I know.

141

The latest designs utilize not 10 layers as in the example but rather somewhere around 96 to 136 layers tall.

142

Here's a single sheet of paper so you can get a sense of the approximate height of these stacks of memory cells.

143

Now that we understand the height, let's think about the width.

144

A page is around 30 ,000 to 60 ,000 adjacent memory cells wide.

145

That means there are 30 ,000 to 60 ,000 bit lines in our information superhighway.

146

Blocks are every four to eight rows and there are around 4 ,000 to 6 ,000 blocks.

147

Along the edges are the control gate selectors and the bitline selectors on the other side.

148

Together, they comprise what is called a row decoder.

149

And by using both sets of selectors as traffic lights, we're able to access a single page.

150

To repeat this, only one page, 45 ,000 or so cells wide,

151

ever uses the bitline to read or write information at any given time.

152

All tens of thousands of bitlines feed down here to the page buffer, where the information of a single page is read to or written from.

153

Let's transition to see what an overall chip might look like.

154

Here we have the arrays of 3D memory cells, the row decoder, and the page buffer at the bottom.

155

Additional peripheral circuitry can be found here for supporting the chip.

156

In order to fit more capacity, engineers copied this layout onto the other side.

157

This chip can read or write at a rate of around 500 megabytes per second.

158

That means that it can read from or write to around 63 blocks every single second.

159

That's incredibly fast.

160

Okay, let's add the last level of complexity.

161

Engineers like to fit even more stuff in as small a space as possible.

162

So on top of having a massive array of memory cells in this insanely complex layout,

163

they decided to copy this chip eight times and stack it into a single microchip.

164

At the bottom, an additional interface chip is used to coordinate between the eight different chips.

165

And that's it.

166

That's all there is in this one microchip that can be found at the center of every one of your smartphones,

167

tablets or solid state drives.

168

This video covered a lot and I hope you kept up.

169

You can always watch this video a second time and if you do watch it a second time,

170

we added our notes and commentary into the English Canada subtitles.

171

Turn them on by clicking the settings gear over here.

172

On the contrary, the notes that are placed up here are caveats or footnotes,

173

but the notes we placed in the English Canada subtitles include commentary, additional information, and much more.

174

Let us know what you think of them in the comments.

175

Also, we'll be making a follow -up set of episodes that will branch off and explain how each part works in detail.

176

In separate episodes, we'll cover specifics as to how the charge trap flash works, how the bitline and control gate selectors work,

177

and how these microchips are manufactured.

178

Also, take a look at our channel page, where we cover other topics such as how touchscreens work,

179

how PCBs work, or how cameras in your smartphone work.

180

If you have any questions or want us to add more branches relating to solid -state drives, tell us in the comments below.

181

But for now, Thanks for watching.

182

Subscribe and hit the bell to get notified

183

when we post more branch episodes on how solid -state drives work and other topics.

184

If you learned something new, share this video with others.

185

Tweet it, post it to your favorite discussion board, or share it on social media so others can learn how this amazing technology works.

186

Until next time, consider the conceptual simplicity, yet structural complexity in the world around you.

📺 Zelfde Kanaal

✨ Aanbevolen Video

77 zinnen

The Secret Sauce Behind NoSQL: LSM Tree

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

100 zinnen

Every Major Image Format Explained in 8 Minutes

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

156 zinnen

How Quantum Batteries Break Every Rule of Charging

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

27 zinnen

You are wasting memory

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

160 zinnen

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL got… Worse?

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

47 zinnen

Are You A Visual Thinker?

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

107 zinnen

What Happens to Your Brain After 30 Days Without Social Media?

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

25 zinnen

DNS Explained in 100 Seconds

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

239 zinnen

My 4.9-Star iOS App Is Actually a Website: Here’s How I Built It

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

139 zinnen

Millions of Luxury iPhone 17 Pro Max Are Manufactured — Inside Apple’s Massive Secret Factory

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

193 zinnen

Semiconductors explained in 16 mins | Chris Miller

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

Shadowing-techniek: lees de volledige stap-voor-stap-gids →

Shadowing Practice: How do SSDs Work? | How does your Smartphone store data? | Insanely Complex Nanoscopic Structures! - Learn English Speaking with Video

The Engineering that Runs the Digital World 🛠️⚙️💻 How do CPUs Work?

How are Microchips Made? 🖥️🛠️ CPU Manufacturing Process Steps

How does Tap to Pay Work?

The Secret Sauce Behind NoSQL: LSM Tree

Every Major Image Format Explained in 8 Minutes

How Quantum Batteries Break Every Rule of Charging

You are wasting memory

Google Pixel 11 Pro XL got… Worse?

Are You A Visual Thinker?

What Happens to Your Brain After 30 Days Without Social Media?

DNS Explained in 100 Seconds

My 4.9-Star iOS App Is Actually a Website: Here’s How I Built It

Millions of Luxury iPhone 17 Pro Max Are Manufactured — Inside Apple’s Massive Secret Factory

Semiconductors explained in 16 mins | Chris Miller

Speaking Goals for This Clip: Explain Complex Ideas Clearly

Phrase Bank: Reusable Expressions for Explaining How Things Work

Fix Your Weak Spots: Pronunciation of Technical Terms & Rhythm

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?