Toshiba Launches Industry's First 512 GB SSD

www.physorg.com ^ | 12/21/2008 | Staff

[Red Badger]

Toshiba announced today the expansion of their line up of NAND-flash-based solid state drives (SSD) with the industry's first 2.5-inch 512 GB SSD and a broad family of fast read/write SSD's based on 43 nanometer Multi-Level Cell NAND.

In addition to the 2.5-inch, 512GB drive, the 43nm NAND SSD family also includes capacities of 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB, offered in 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch drive enclosures or as SSD Flash Modules.

These 2nd generation SSD's offer increased capacity and performance for notebook computers. They utilize an advanced MLC controller that achieves higher read/write speeds, parallel data transfers and wear leveling to optimize performance, reliability and endurance.

These drives enable improved system responsiveness with a maximum sequential read speed of 240MBps and maximum sequential write speed of 200MBps. This faster response time enhances overall computing experience and allows for faster boot and application loading. The drives also offer AES data encryption to prevent unauthorized data access.

Toshiba as well as many market analysts expect SSD's to begin significant deployment in the market in 2009. With further growth, in the notebook market, expected around 10% by 2010 and 25% by 2012.

The new drives provide a high level of performance and endurance for use in notebook computers, gaming and home entertainment systems. These SSD's will be showcased at International CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 8 - 11, 2009. Mass production will begin in the second quarter of 2009 (April to June).

[AU72]

Lotus 123 was the DOS version of Visicalc which it was derived (or copied) from. It ran in assembler thus it's speed.

Accountants happily paid 5 to 8 thousand dollars for hardware to run 123 on.

[tacticalogic]

$$$ maybe? I don't know..............

I haven't seen any pricing on these, but Samsung recently annouced that they would begin production on their own 256GB SSD's, expected to sell for $1,000 - $1,400.

[Red Badger]

I bet the 512 GB model costs a pretty penny!

Mucho Dinero, mi amigo.............

[Red Badger]

Double that...........

[tacticalogic]

Double that for the Samsungs, or the Toshiba 512’s? I’d expect a near doubling of price on the 512’s because they’re twice the capacity.

[Red Badger]

Toshiba’s.........

[tacticalogic]

Sounds about right.

[devane617]

First computer system I worked on had 32k memory, only 16k available for program space. Had a 10M disk drive. It was housed in a huge box measuring 5’h x 6’d x 4’w, with a cyclops display and toggle-switch input. Those were the days.

[CholeraJoe]

How much? Six months ago a 16G flash drive was over $150. Now they are $50-70.

[Red Badger]

The price of “New” is always high for a few ..............

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Since there are no moving parts like traditional HDD’s, what’s the big deal in scaling up memory with more silicon?

[Red Badger]

It’s all in the reject rate.............

[Rummyfan]

I've been in the biz long enough to remember IBM disk drives that had all of ten-gig capacity, and even before that mainframes with only 512K RAM. Of course they were the size of a large side-by-side Amana refrigerator and had power and interface cables six inches thick. So..... 512 GB SSDs are pretty impressive!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Translation:

It’s smaller, faster, cheaper and more reliable because it has no moving parts...............

You may notice that the price of this Toshiba SSD isn't mentioned in the article. That will not be because it is cheaper than mechanical drives, unfortunately. If that were the case, they would be proclaiming the death of the mechanical drive. Not yet.

I am however seriously considering the addition of an SSD to a system which needs significantly better performance to fulfill its mission. If I find that a $50 RAM upgrade can't get the job done for me . . .

[Red Badger]

Eventually, SSD’s will supplant the traditional HDD in virtually all applications.............

[Red Badger]

...IBM disk drives that had all of ten-gig capacity...

You mean 10 Meg?............I remember those...........

[The Great RJ]

Mechanical hard drives will soon become as obsolete as floppy drives.

[edh]

“Since there are no moving parts like traditional HDD’s, what’s the big deal in scaling up memory with more silicon?”

Probably the number of chips you can fit on a single board....just a guess there.

[reagan_fanatic]

My first computer was one of these. Bought it at the old Venture department store for $99.95. Boxy, black & white graphics and a membrane keyboard that would wear out rather quickly. Took forever to load programs from the cassette recorder (it's hard drive.)



Introduced: July 1982
Price: US $99.95
CPU: Zilog Z80A, 3.25MHz
RAM: 2K, 64K max
Display: 22 X 32 text
Hooks to TV
Ports: memory, cassette
Peripherals: Cassette recorder T/S printer
OS: ROM BASIC

[Red Badger]

Ever used an 8 inch floppy?.........