SanDisk announces 32GB SSD: prices begin to fall
By Thomas Ricker 
posted January 4th 2007 9:26AM
posted January 4th 2007 9:26AM
If yesterday's announcement by Samsung was a tiny step in the direction of solid state disk (SSD) ubiquity, then today's announcement by SanDisk is a freakin' leap. That's right, the big bad daddy of consumer flash -- SanDisk -- joins Samsung and TDK today with a 32GB SSD drive all their own. The 1.8-inch SSD delivers a sustained read-rate of 62MBps and a random read rate of 7,000 inputs/outputs per second (IOPS) for a 512-byte transfer – more than 100 times faster than most hard disk drives. Fine, but the most notable detail in the press release is the price. According to SanDisk, their 32GB SSD could increase the end-user price by "around $600" when released in laptops computers in the first half of 2007. That's down -- way down -- from the $900 to $1,400 premium we were paying for SSD equipped gear. Come 'ere, group hug all.
Good grief, read the rest of the comments regarding my original post in this thread please.
The drive itself isn't that amazing news - there are two other manufactures making them already. The big news is the implication for the market.
Big single solid state drives (either single drives or RAID'ed units) are the holy grail for the digital video industry. Currently they are very expensive when you look at the amount of storage you need for the data rates we work at. The more compainies who make them, the cheaper they become and the more R&D goes into them etc.
Samsung "announced" or "released" thier solid state disks about 8 months ago according to internet articles. They are not available, and Sandisk probably won't be shipping anytime soon. What is actually available, not pie-in-the sky conjecture about pricing / performance can be found at http://www.dvnation.com/nand-flash-ssd.html . I'm sure they'll have the Sandisk if / when it comes out too.
Samsung "announced" or "released" thier solid state disks about 8 months ago according to internet articles. They are not available, and Sandisk probably won't be shipping anytime soon.
Also, be aware that the Sandisk SSD is using a ZIF connector which is only of use in a select few machines, such as the Samsung Q1. Very few standard laptops use this interface, and there isn't any room inside a laptop to convert. DV Nation has SSDs with many different interfaces at http://www.dvnation.com/nand-flash-ssd.html . IDE, SATA, 1.8", 2.5", even a 3.5" with SATA on one side and IDE on the other!
I'm sure they'll have the Sandisk if / when it comes out too. Lots of good info about Vista Readyboost too.
Samsung "announced" or "released" thier solid state disks about 8 months ago according to internet articles. They are not available, and Sandisk probably won't be shipping anytime soon.
Also, be aware that the Sandisk SSD is using a ZIF connector which is only of use in a select few machines, such as the Samsung Q1. Very few standard laptops use this interface, and there isn't any room inside a laptop to convert. DV Nation has SSDs with many different interfaces at http://www.dvnation.com/nand-flash-ssd.html . IDE, SATA, 1.8", 2.5", even a 3.5" with SATA on one side and IDE on the other!
I'm sure they'll have the Sandisk if / when it comes out too. Lots of good info about Vista Readyboost too.
Samsung "announced" or "released" thier solid state disks about 8 months ago according to internet articles. They are not available, and Sandisk probably won't be shipping anytime soon.
Also, be aware that the Sandisk SSD is using a ZIF connector which is only of use in a select few machines, such as the Samsung Q1. Very few standard laptops use this interface, and there isn't any room inside a laptop to convert. DV Nation has SSDs with many different interfaces at http://www.dvnation.com/nand-flash-ssd.html . IDE, SATA, 1.8", 2.5", even a 3.5" with SATA on one side and IDE on the other!
I'm sure they'll have the Sandisk if / when it comes out too. Lots of good info about Vista Readyboost too.
Doh, damnit, I just posted over at one of the *other* SSD articles, I was only one of two, so I got lonely and thought I'd join the rest of the crowd on this article. :-P
Now I have to read 50+ comments to make sure I don't repeat what everyone else is saying... or so I can taunt the dumb ones. :)
It's the same as shelling out a premium for the latest pentium wtf, but at least with this you'll be able to see the performance difference. A practical application? Turning a 2 year old notebook into a very usable machine. I'll buy one at any price under a g.
Immediate use for this giant SSD: VMWare/VPC Demo's.
SSD's have the potential to greatly alleviate one of the biggest constraints on their performance(random short I/O's). Tons of software companies are using this format for demonstrating their products and the performance is usually painfully slow when hard drive activity has to occurr.
How about booting up an ITX based PC, really getting low on power consumption. In a car the boot time would be appreciated for navigation systems
this is good new for the owners of Mercedes S Class 2007 cars , as they can use PCMCIA as HDD in the build in slot in the car , specialy if the capacity will increase with the NAND technology to reach 120GB. intresting ???!!
I wonder if anyone has hacked their TiVo to run a SSD yet?
New faster and more reliable technology is always a good thing! Right?
Shannon
http://www.themanshan.com