Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dTal 121 days ago
Disc = round part visible

Disk = round part hidden or no round part

Have I got it!?

1 comments

I think their primary difference is disc = optical, disk = magnetic. That’s what they mention first.

All of that “in the UK”.

Looking at the store, they’re using “SSD Storage” for SSD.

The British spelling was used by Philips when they launched the Compact Disc with Sony.

Disk was used by American companies inventing hard disks, floppy disks etc.

British software often used "disc" for both, e.g. RISC OS on Acorn/ARM/Raspberry Pi [1].

[1] https://arcwiki.org.uk/index.php/RISC_OS_3 (see screenshot)

Apple uses “disk” when referring to SSD storage. They still use disc when referring to a CD or DVD

Source: the language used in MacOS Tahoe

SSD could stand for "SSD Storage Device".

Bring back recursive acronyms!

SSD, of course, stands for Solid State Dis[c,k]...
Solid State Drive, usually, but when it comes to language anything goes.
A drive is a motor or other similar device, one that is driven or worked.

But there are no moving parts in an SSD.

Hence solid state.
Disck.