SimpleTech announces 512GB and 256GB 3.5-inch SSD drives

You know how it is, five minutes ago we were not aware of our dire need for 512GB of ridiculously fast NAND storage, but it's all so clear now: there can be no substitute. SimpleTech has announced the Zeus-IOPS SSD 512GB and 256GB SSD drives, which offer up the largest flash drive capacities we're aware of in a 3.5-inch enclosure. Performance ain't no slouch either, with SimpleTech claiming 200x performance over 15,000 RPM enterprise hard drives, with better reliability to boot. SimpleTech wouldn't come clean on an exact price, but it expects prices for SSD to drop to $2 per GB by 2012, meaning that in five years you can get one of these 512 giggers for the low, low price of $1,000 -- and we're guessing around ten times that when the drive launches in Q3 2007. The 256GB is available now.

[Thanks, Kelly]

[McGinley @ Apr 18th 2007 5:58PM]

By the time that flash is affordable,phase change memory will be in mass production.

God knows when that'll happen...

[SumYungGai @ Apr 18th 2007 5:58PM]

"Better reliability than harddrives"

Yeah right - except for when a little thing called STATIC ELECTRICITY comes along and clears out your 512gb of data for ya in the blink of an eye.

[Sum Yz Gai @ Apr 18th 2007 6:12PM]

Hactually, most HDDs and SSDs are enclosed in aluminum housings which act as faraday cages thus preventing static electricity from damaging the contents of the drives.

[Carnaval13 @ Apr 18th 2007 6:33PM]

The post looks inaccurate. The company that made the announcement is STEC. STEC sold their consumer storage division, Simpletech, to Fabrik. STEC and Simpletech are 2 different companies and that logo is not STEC's logo.

[Jesse S @ Apr 18th 2007 6:36PM]

Ummm...These drives aren't fast. The only thing that's fast is like...Instant on..OH damnit, I forgot the buzzwords.

[Leo @ Apr 18th 2007 6:37PM]

SSD's are not new!

http://www.bitmicro.com/

Bit Micro has been making SSD drives since before 2000

granted they are more for military and industrial applications

Using Flash memory in a hard drive is not new

[bobbbio @ Apr 18th 2007 10:40PM]

yeah, it's known that they're not new. What's new is the size. BitMicro only goes "Up to 155.6 GB." 512 GB > 155.6 GB.

[Feba @ Apr 18th 2007 7:38PM]

Nobody cares just because it's SSD, people care because it's FIVE HUNDRED AND TWELVE GIGABYTES OF SSD FLASH MEMORY.

[bmitsuda @ Apr 18th 2007 8:10PM]

Oh man I want one really bad. Doesn't that seem like a long time for prices to come down - hard drives seem to double in size every year for the same price.

[OctaneZ @ Apr 18th 2007 8:40PM]

From the article:
-- Weight: less than 0.4 g
Now THAT is what I call vaporware!

[Steve @ Apr 18th 2007 8:57PM]

This drive had better come standard on my Luvaglio!!!

[Eric @ Apr 18th 2007 9:37PM]

See, I couldn't wait for this, so I bought 64 Corsair 8GB USB flash drives and RAIDed them into one big 512GB drive. Sure, it cost me $6400 for the drives (not to mention adding all of those USB ports), but it was SO worth it! Now I can play video games like a pro! (Unfortunately, I now can't afford high speed internet, so my lag times are pretty high). Anyway, just pointing out that there are other solutions!

[Minas Anis @ Apr 19th 2007 3:35AM]

Okay, this would be the biggest announced on the Internet, but the previous record was with M Systems, offering Upto 352GB, not BitMicro. BUT the unannounced excceds this number, it's above 3TBs(Not sure if available or still future plans, but this SimpleTech one still Q3 2007, so still future plan too), and if we'll talk about Storage, regardless SSD tech, I guess I'll remember AtomChip, offering upto 2TB, Quantum tech., but prices and costs wouldn't be for individuals and regular users.

[Lazarus Dark @ Apr 19th 2007 9:00AM]

that was a hoax. there is no quantum optical ram

[Charlie @ Apr 19th 2007 11:12AM]

I keep reading about all of the SSD's. I have a need for these in a corporate application right now, and have authorization to buy, but where? The post says available now?

[KC @ Apr 19th 2007 1:58PM]

@Eric,

heh. 64x 8GB USB flash drives in raid? Isn't the bottleneck in the USB xfer speed?

[Jason @ May 31st 2007 1:19PM]

You can get a 32GB SSD now from Dell. I have a couple and they work fine. Make sure you get one with a PATA or SATA interface if you're putting it into a normal laptop or whatever, though -- the one that comes with the Latitude 420 uses a ZIF-40 interface.