Toshiba 32nm SSDs
Including 128GB mSATA and Half-Slim modules
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on January 8, 2010 at 3:27 pmToshiba Corp. and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), its subsidiary in the Americas, announced an expanded line up of NAND-flash-based solid state drives (SSDs) including the industry’s first 128-gigabyte (GB) Half-Slim /mSATA SG Series SSD modules ideally suited for a variety of applications including mini-mobile/netbook PCs, and a third generation, high performance HG3 Series featuring higher performance read/write SSDs.
128GB mSATA and Half-Slim SG2 Modules
HG3 High Performance
Both families of SSDs are based upon Toshiba 32nm Multi-Level Cell NAND. The new HG3 generation SSD delivers an industry competitive, high level of performance and endurance for use in notebook computers, gaming and home entertainment systems. Both drives series will be showcased for media at Digital Experience! during International CES 2010.
Samples of the new drives will be available in the first quarter (January to March) of 2010, with mass production in the second (April to June) quarter.
The industry’s first 128GB mSATA and Half-Slim modules, the fruits of Toshiba’s layering technology, are ideal for applications enabled by smaller form factors and lower power such as mini-mobile PCs, netbooks and other mobile applications. The Toshiba SG2 series, with a maximum sequential read speed of 180 MB per second (MBps) and maximum sequential write speed of 70 MBps, provides greater design flexibility and saves space and cost compared to SSDs in hard drive form factors and cases. The 128GB modules are only one seventh the volume and one eighth the weight of 2.5-inch form factor SSDs, and consume a fraction of the power.
Toshiba’s 3rd-generation HG3 High Performance SSDs deliver the performance needed for higher end notebook computers. An advanced MLC controller supports higher read speeds, parallel data transfers and wear leveling to optimize performance, which increases reliability and endurance. The drives enable improved system responsiveness with a maximum sequential read speed of 250MB per second (MBps) and maximum sequential write speed of 180MBps, enabling an improvement in overall computing experience, with faster boot and application loading times. The drives are offered in capacities of 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB in a standard 9.5mm, 2.5-inch case, or in a special 7mm thin 2.5-inch case in capacities of 128GB or 256GB. Smaller 1.8-inch drives are available in 64GB, 128GB or 256GB in a standard 1.8-inch disk drive case or as case-less or LIF-modules. The drives also offer AES data encryption to support only authorized data access.
Both new series support the TRIM Command implemented in Windows 7. In earlier models of solid state drives, a data block from which data was deleted was flagged as not in use and ignored by the controller. Once all the memory cells were written to once, this approach slowed down SSD operation. TRIM enables the OS to tell the SSD controller that the data can be actually deleted, freeing the blocks for subsequent use and maintaining SSD performance across its life.
Toshiba will continue to promote innovations that widen the horizons of the NAND Flash market and support its continued leadership in that market. The company will spur demand for SSDs in notebook PCs, netbooks, laptops and digital consumer products by enhancing its lineup, offering products with different densities and interfaces in a range of packages, while advancing device performance.
32 nm NAND High Performance SSD (HG3)
32 nm NAND Standard SSD (SG2)
Comments
There is an advantage of SSD over HDD that is generally ignored - among the speed, the reliability and the power consumption - : the form factor.
Up to know, form factors of SSDs were following the traditional volume of HDDs, de factor standards 1.8-, 2-5 and 3.5-inches, and with the same interfaces (ATA, SATA, SAS, FC), as they are supposed to simply replace them.
But the size of the flash chips is going down regularly, meaning that it’s possible to put more capacity into SSDs within the same form factor as HDDs.
In the future, particularly for the notebook and sub-notebook markets, OEMs would be happy to get a silicon-state storage device of smaller dimensions to reduce the size and the weight of their small computers.
Here, Toshiba is offering a 2.5-inch SSD with only 7mm height, the standard being 9.5mm. The company is the last one to manufacture 1.8-inch HDDs – mainly for Apple -, an consequently adds also a silicon-state device in this volume. But the new SG2 in Half-Slim and mSATA form-factors are even smaller and lighter. This trend will probably continue.
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