[quote name='Wolfpup']Yeah, I thought of that last night except at the same time these systems also don't support defragmentation, so I think an SSD could potentially degrade less, since a lot of them sort of degrade to a certain point and then quit...like I think Intel's drives typically do fine. I think Sandforce ones do too? Crucial's doesn't though, it needs TRIM...I mean they all need TRIM, but I don't think their performance completely dies without it.
Still...it would be nice if that got added...something actually useful to add to the firmware![/QUOTE]
Actually, a bigger issue is paging. This is a common operation on computer operating systems that is the primary reason wear leveling functions are built into SSD controllers. Consoles generally do little or no paging, so it isn't an issue by and large.
Fragmentation is also a far, far lesser issue for the usage pattern of a console's drive. A desktop OS like Windows or OS X deals in zillions of tiny files, many of them frequently altered and saved to disc during paging operations or just to record state changes between sessions. As the primary application of console hard drives is to store partial or whole game images, this isn't much of an issue. Even more so if the console OS is designed to segregate save files and other small files away from the main area given over to game data. You'd really have to generate a LOT of game saves to get the kind of file structure that makes problems on a PC drive.
Even then, save games are less prone to causing fragmentation. Most games have known maximum size needed for its saves, so this is easily reserved on the first usage. So the file may be rewritten many times over the usage of the game, but it doesn't change the discs sector usage. And the save process would have to be ridiculously chatty and frequent to cause any notable wear to the flash cells involved.
A game that saved a lot of player generated data might be create unpredictable file sizes, though there are ways to control that. In general, most of the concerns of an SSD in a Windows or Mac box don't apply to consoles.