Plextor M5M SSD for Ultra Thin Notebook (128GB at £95)

Plextor announces the M5M mSATA 6Gb/s JEDEC MO-300 SSD.

Compact and light weight, the drive puts the performance and reliability of Plextor’s SSDs into the thinnest ultrabook laptops and tablet PCs.

Powered by the Marvell 88SS9187 controller, the M5M mSATA SSD has a maximum sequential read speed of 540MB/s, a write speed of 430MB/s, and random read/write speeds of 80K IOPS/77K IOPS. Supporting the SATA DEVSLP standard it enables longer battery life with a DEVSLP power consumption of 1mW. Thanks to testing during development and manufacturing standards, the calculated MTBF is 2.4 million hours.
 
Performance
The M5M is designed for ultrabook and tablet PC devices enabling them to maximize system performance and responsiveness through fast storage performance. It delivers equally speeds for all data types through the use of the Marvell 88SS9187 controller. True-Speed technology prevents long-term slowdown by automatically returning drive speed to like-new levels after periods of intense use. This combination of the latest server grade controller and True Speed gives M5M users long-term real-world performance.
 
Energy efficiency
The speed of the new M5M is complemented with efficiency including support for the DEVSLP standard. In the Device Sleep state, the drive uses a mere 1mW and resumes in 100ms, and in operating mode it uses less that 10% of the power of a typical HDD. This gives users longer battery life when used for storage intensive application.

Enterprise-grade True Protect
The M5M features True Protect double-data protection technology. This system includes multi-layered data integrity checking with automatic 128-bit error correction and firmware based Robust Data Hold-out Algorithm to ensure 100% accurately for long-term data storage. True Protect also offers data security through the use of the of AES encryption 256-bit which is performed by the M5M’s US Government AES-validated Marvell controller.
 
Reliability
Prior to manufacturing during development, the M5M underwent testing. The 500-hour 400 drive tests included: a 48-hour sustained read/write test, 4,000 times sleep and hibernation test, 250 power cycle tests. The pass requirement for each test was zero errors. Reliability is high with a calculated MTBF being 2.4 million hours. Every individual drive is also subjected to burn-in testing and accelerated usage simulation ensuring stability.
 
The M5M’s dimensions are: 50.8 mm (2 inches) x 29.8 mm (1.17 inches) x 3.6 mm (0.14 inches). It weighs 9g (0.32 ounces). It is available in 128GB capacity with recommended end user price of £94.99 (including VAT) and comes with a three-year warranty. Later this quarter a 64GB and 256GB version are expected to become available.

The 128GB version of the M5M is available for pre-order at Scan Computers International Ltd.