Well, flash doesn't behave like non-volatile memory, but it is like random access memory. You don't have to wait for a spinning disk to come around in order to

Well, flash doesn't behave like non-volatile memory, but it is like random access memory. You don't have to wait for a spinning disk to come around in order to read a sector. And, SSDs can read any block at the same speed. HDs read sequential blocks faster. The mechanics of writing/erasing doesn't change the fact that it is much closer to slow memory than fast disk. You can leave the implementation details (wear leveling, etc) to the controllers. It actually reminds me a lot of old core memory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory). In order to read core memory, you had to actually try to write to it. If the voltage changed, you guessed wrong, so you then knew the correct value.