PLC could drive down SSD prices
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For just over a year now, there has been a significant reduction in the price of SSDs. A new technology called Penta-Level Cell could reduce prices even further. At the moment, only Intel and Toshiba are working on PLC. But these 5-bit cells come with a drawback: their sequential read/write performance is, at best, just as good as a mechanical drive. Still, their latency is substantially lower than traditional hard drives, so in random operations, they do represent an advantage.
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Honestly, I only see PLC as a solution for data centers, in WORM (write once, read many times) solutions because it will have a ridiculous number of write cycles.
If it serves to replace magnetic hard drives, it is welcome, but I don't see it for domestic use.
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But as it says there, and as you rightly say, it can be worth it for many reads, and if the ssd's capacity improves and the price is much lower, then even better. And also, in the article it talks about NAS and RAID0. There it will greatly improve its speed and it won't be noticeable compared to SLC, and it doesn't replace the others.
That said, for home use, for price/performance I'll stick with an MLC
