Toshiba ships 43nm MLC NAND-based SSDs to OEMs for unknown amounts

It started out as just disheartening, but now it's downright frustrating. With rare exception, each and every SSD release we hear about these days scuttles skillfully around the issue of price. Take Toshiba, for example, who has just confessed to shipping its 43nm MLC NAND-based solid state drives to five undisclosed OEMs. Not only do we have no clue as to which companies will be integrating these into their machines, but we've no idea what these mystery firms are paying. What we do know is this: Tosh's new range of 1.8- and 2.5-inch SSDs are leaving the docks now in capacities of 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB -- good luck figuring out where they'll land.

[Via HotHardware]

[216 Posted Aug 6th 2009 8:00AM]

Useless until we start seeing these in actual laptops

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 10:43AM]

ipods

[Haha Posted Aug 6th 2009 8:19AM]

In Toshiba netbook/laptops?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 8:27AM]

These suckers (OEMs) should make it public about hwo much it costs them to buy each of their component. (That'll definitely make Apple go bankrupt though).

There must be a law for this kinda stuff ... make your private dealings go public, you evil corporations.

[macemoneta Posted Aug 6th 2009 8:57AM]

Most vendors want you to buy their products. Those that don't have their reasons, and I respect that. If Toshiba is embarrassed for people to know where the drives are, I have no interest in looking for the products to buy them.

[BrainBrian Posted Aug 6th 2009 9:50AM]

So Toshiba is JUST moving 43nm into production, meanwhile Intel already has drives released utilizing their own 34nm process. Ouch, that's gotta sting.

[Hazman Posted Aug 6th 2009 11:35AM]

Hey, if you have to ask then you can't afford it, right?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 11:43AM]

They are being sold in Toshiba (Protege R500) and Lenovo (T400s) already. Seem to have good random R/W speeds, unknown controller, but if these are the new Jmicrons, we might finally have some good competition! Benches at NBR (forum.notebookreview.com) from multiple T400s users. Not quite as fast as Intel, Indilinx, or even Samsung, but far better than any other Jmicrons out there. Lenovo's prices seem fairly reasonable, though they use both Samsung and Toshiba drives, so it's hard to know what you're getting. If I had a choice, I'd still pick Samsung for the same price.

[MrAffrox Posted Aug 6th 2009 5:28PM]

Wow. These SSD capacities are growing so fast. Wasn't it just a few months back that we saw the 500 GB HDD?