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OCZ Summit Series SSDs get boost from new Samsung MLC

by Donald Melanson, posted Feb 17th 2009 at 12:23AM

Intel's X-25M SSD may be the current go-to drive for those primarily concerned with speed, but it looks like it could soon have some competition from OCZ's latest Summit Series drives, which get a significant boost from some new Samsung MLC memory, not to mention 64MB of on-board cache. According to PC Perspective, those additions show themselves the most in write speeds, which manage to top even the X-25M, although the Summit drive fell slightly behind when it came to read speed tests, prompting the site to still give the overall edge to the X-25M. PC Perspective does speculate, however, that, given OCZ's past track record, the drives (available in sizes up to 250GB) could come in significantly cheaper than Intel's offerings, which would make the X-25M a much harder sell even with its slight performance edge. Hit up the link below for the complete benchmarks and a peek inside the drive.

[Thanks, Ryan]

Intel 80GB SSD price cut by one-third, still very expensive

by Ross Miller, posted Feb 6th 2009 at 5:27PM

Looks like Intel is giving some of its SSDs a more reasonable -- yet still very exorbitant -- price tag. The company has slashed the 2.5-inch 80GB X25-M from $595 in September to now $390. While a 34 percent cut is nothing to scoff at, that's still $90 more expensive than Western Digital's 2TB spinner, which offers 25 times the capacity. The company also recently discounted its 160GB variant 19 percent, from $945 to $765. No reason was given for the markdown, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the economy isn't looking too kindly on solid state's dollar-to-data ratio.

Toshiba announces 512GB SSD, other smaller SSDs

by Nilay Patel, posted Dec 18th 2008 at 3:20AM

We'd heard Toshiba was working on 512GB SSDs back in April, and the company's delivering right before CES. The industry-first half-terabyte drive is the highlight of Tosh's new line of 43nm MLC drives, which also includes 64GB, 128GB and 256GB units in both 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors -- just right to pudge out your laptops and netbooks. No word on price, but you've got plenty of time to save up, as these won't hit mass production until at least April.

Toshiba rolls out 256GB laptop SSD, 32GB flash modules for netbooks

by Thomas Ricker, posted Sep 26th 2008 at 1:13AM

Get your flash here, red hot flash memory. Toshiba is now sampling its new 256GB SSD with a 120MB max read and 70MBps write via 3.0Gbps SATA interface -- not the fastest consumer SSD but not bad. This 2.5-inch slab measures just 3.0-mm thick and targets laptops looking to shed the 9.5-mm constraint presented by standard hard disks. Like Samsung, Tosh also announced new 8GB, 16GB and 32GB SATA flash modules aimed directly at the booming netbook market with speeds topping-out at 80MBps for reads and 50MBps for writes. All the drives feature MLC-based NAND which accounts for the less-than blazing SSD speeds. On the other hand, that should help keep the costs low when these things ship in quantity later this year.

Samsung goes after low-cost laptop market with new SATA II SSDs

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 27th 2008 at 2:26PM

We have a strange feeling there's more marketing hoopla here than anything else, but whatever the case, Samsung sure feels like its newest line of SSDs will work just great within low-cost laptops. The outfit has begun to sample "low-density, higher-performance solid state drives that are only 30-percent of the size of 2.5-inch SSDs and highly cost-efficient to manufacture." The MLC-based drives only come in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB flavors, and read / write performance ranges from 90MB/sec to 70MB/sec, respectively. Mass production is scheduled to crank up next month, and while you'd expect SSDs aimed at netbooks to boast remarkably low price tags, Sammy doesn't even bother spilling those beans.

Intel announces its first SSDs, plans to ship in a month

by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 19th 2008 at 6:24PM

Intel's keeping the announcements coming at this year's IDF -- today we got word that the company will launch its first SSDs in a month or so just as we expected. The 1.8-inch X-18M and 2.5-inch X-25M drives will be targeted at laptops and MIDs and come in 80GB and 160GB sizes using MLC tech, while the 32GB and 64GB SLC-based X-25E is aimed at servers and will be out in 90 days. Intel hasn't locked down pricing, but the M-series drives should cost about $8/GB, which would put the 160GB unit at a whopping $1,280 and the 80GB at $640. We're hoping those estimates are skewed a little high -- and Intel says there might be a cheaper 40GB unit on the way as well. We'll see in a month, we suppose.

[Via Electronista]

Indilinx and Mosaid aim to squeeze 600MB/s out of SSDs

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 1:39AM

Indilinx just recently caught eyes with its Barefoot solid state drive controller, which has reportedly shown a read speed of 230MB/sec. Merely days later, it's already talking about the next best thing. Said firm, along with Mosaid, is preparing for a third-generation of the controller for the SATA 3 interface, which will provide a mind-boggling 600MB/sec. Unfortunately, no other details were provided, but just in case you were terrified that the internal drive you purchase in 2013 wouldn't transfer files any faster than the one you're using now, at least you've one less worry on your mind.

[Thanks, Johnny]

Intel's "mainstream" 80GB and 160GB SSDs ready to launch with mainstream price?

by Thomas Ricker, posted Aug 15th 2008 at 3:58AM

Looks like Intel, the big bad daddy of silicon, is about to unleash its first consumer oriented SSDs into the market. While Intel's 1.8- and 2.5-inch 80GB and 160GB SSD plans were pretty thoroughly detailed in those May leaks, Expreview has slapped up an honest-to-goodness slide which looks like it came straight from the Intel deck. Assuming it's authentic, then we now know that Intel's 2.5-inch X25-M and 1.8-inch X18-M SSDs top out with a 240MBps sustained read and 70MBps write. That's just a bit slower than the blazing Micron RealSSD C20 but still seriously quick and hopefully priced for the mainstream audience they are targeting. Dell, for example, sells a 128GB Samsung SSD for $450 -- surely Intel can beat that cost per Byte... right Intel? We're guessing that the enterprise-class 32GB and 64GB X25-E SSDs will feature some of that Micron co-developed "world's fastest" SLC NAND in order to achieve that ridiculous 240MBps / 170MBps read / write speed at what's expected to be an equally ridiculous price. The 80GB X25-M and X18-M are expected to launch in Q3 (so any day now) while the 160GB solid state slab should break free for consumers in Q1 (not Q4 2008) of 2009. Expect to hear more on these next week as Intel kicks off another International Developers Forum.

[Via TG Daily]

Indilinx trumpets SSD controller with 230MB/sec read speed

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 11th 2008 at 11:42AM

With SSDs, there really is no "fast enough." In the never-ending quest for more speed, Indilinx has just introduced its Barefoot solid state drive controller with 90-nanometer process technology. Said device has reportedly shown the "fastest read speed (230MB/sec) of all the products currently available in the market and supports the capacity up to 512GB with multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash." Additionally, it plays nice with SATA 2.0 and flash memory from Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix and Intel / Micron. Sadly, mass production isn't scheduled until Q4 of this year, so now you can sit on that vanilla HDD even longer as you wait for the future to arrive. Ugh, what a tease.

Micron announces insanely quick RealSSD C200 SSDs

by Thomas Ricker, posted Aug 5th 2008 at 1:40AM

Intel's partner in solid state crime, Micron, just announced an update to its RealSSD lineup of SSDs. Based on the typically slower (and cheaper) MLC NAND process technology, the new 2.5-inch (up to 256GB) laptop and 1.8-inch (32GB to 128GB) ultra-portable storage slabs offer a 3Gbps SATA interface and ridiculous 250MBps read and 100MBps write speeds -- yes, that's fast, damn fast when you consider the 70MBps write and 90MBps read speeds of Samsung's latest consumer oriented SSDs. They even best the listed read speeds of Samsung's top-ender. Unfortunately, no prices were given though it's said to be "balanced price to performance." Expect 'em to hit the market in Q4 under the Lexar brand, and maybe even Crucial, Seagate, and Intel for all we know.

SanDisk CEO says Vista "not optimized" for SSDs

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 8:59AM

SSDs have been quite the hot topic of late, with conflicting power usage reports and free-falling (almost) prices being the two angles most commonly yapped about. Now, however, we have a completely different reason to mention 'em in passing, as SanDisk's dutiful CEO let loose some questionable comments during its Q2 2008 earnings call. Noting that Windows Vista would present unique challenges for SSD manufacturers, he stated that "as soon as you get into Vista applications, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid state disk." Furthermore, he proclaimed that the "next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls," and finished things up by asserting that "SSD performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs." It seems all those statements were just used to deflect blame for it being behind schedule, but we're a bit curious about how it intends on defending said statements with real-world numbers. Hmm?

Ridata Ultra-S Plus MLC SSDs arrive in 32/64/128GB flavors, start at $170

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 10:57PM

Ridata has dabbled in the wonderful world of triple-data capacity SSDs before, but as with most manufacturers, it wouldn't open its mouth and divulge a price. Now, however, we've got three newcomers to swoon over along with price tags to balk (or cheer, depending on wallet depth) over. The Ultra-S Plus MLC SATA SSD line has launched in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB sizes, all of which offer up to 128MB/sec read speeds and 80MB/sec write speeds. Without further adieu, the late July-bound trio will be selling for $169.90, $294.90 and $537.90 from least capacious to most. So, you gettin' one?

Samsung's low-power 128GB SSDs go mass production on the cheap

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 9th 2008 at 1:14AM

Good news on the SSD front. Announced back in January, Samsung is now mass producing its 1.8- and 2.5-inch SSDs in both 64GB and 128GB capacities. And since these SATA II SSDs are based on MLC -- 64 MLC NAND flash chips of 16 gigabits each in the 9.5-mm thick 128GB SSD -- you can expect them to be cheap by comparison to SLC-based SSDs and faster by comparison to traditional laptop hard disk drives while lasting about 20 times longer than the expected 4-5 year life span of that mechanical spinner. We're talking 70MB/s writes and 90MB/s reads and power consumption rated at just 0.2-watts idle or 0.5-watts when active -- far less than any of the models (including the SSDs tested by LAPTOP) tested by Tom's which should help put any battery consumption concerns to rest. Heaping happy on top of good, Samsung tells us to expect the 256GB SSD to go mass production by the end of the year. Clap clap clap.

Hynix develops triple-level-cell NAND flash: 30 percent cheaper than MLC

by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 4th 2008 at 10:25AM

The more cells you can pack onto a NAND chip, the cheaper the storage, so we're excited about Hynix's recent announcement of triple-level-cell NAND flash. You might have noticed that MLC-based SSDs are cheaper than SLC units, and TLC keeps the trend alive -- Hynix says the cost of TLC production is some 30 percent lower than current chips. On top of that, the 32GB chips themselves are 30 percent smaller than current NAND chips, meaning device manufacturers will be able to cram more storage into our PMPs and phones. We'll have to wait a little while though: production is going to ramp up in October, and Hynix hasn't committed to using the new chips in SSDs quite yet.

Samsung announces crazy fast 256GB SSD, our knees buckle

by Ryan Block, posted May 25th 2008 at 9:11PM

Uh oh, Samsung's just announced their first 256GB SSD. Not that you needed to know anything more than that to trigger salivation, but the MLC-flash SATA II drive has speeds of 200MBps read and 160MBps sequential write. Not like we'll be able to afford it or anything, but they'll be available come September, with a 1.8-inch version due in Q4.

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