JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in standards development for the microelectronics industry, today announced that it has published the first official standard for solid-state drives. MO-297 defines the dimensions, layout and connector position for 54mm x 39mm 1.8-inch solid-state drives with a standard SATA connector. Adopting a standard form factor for these types of solid state drives will enable interoperability throughout the supply chain, benefiting drive manufacturers, product designers and consumers. Conforming to a single standard will further simplify the product design process, and increase the adoption of SSD storage solutions among different segments as replacement for the traditional hard disk drives or as complementing storage options. The MO-297 registered outline also corresponds with the SFF Committee specification SFF-8156, and the Serial ATA International Organization's (SATA-IO) Revision 2.6 specification for connector dimension and tolerance. The document with the new MO-297 standard is now available for free download here, as part of JEDEC Publication 95: Registered and Standard Outlines for Solid State and Related Products.

MO-297 is the first document to standardize a physical outline for a solid state drive. Adoption of this standard has the potential to deliver significant benefits for the industry by creating a single outline for storage suppliers and systems manufacturers to use and reference,

said Jim Leidy, Business Development Manager for Tyco Electronics and Chairman of the JEDEC Task Group behind the effort.
He added,

Consumers will also have the benefit of vendor choice and ease of replacement, since drives adhering to the standard will be interchangeable.