If you've been waiting for the performance and capacity of solid state drives to increase before taking the no-moving-parts plunge, check out the latest from Samsung.
Electronista broke the news late yesterday regarding Samsung's latest entry into the notebook SSD market with a lovely brushed-metal number storing an impressive 256GB in a standard-size 2.5” and 9.5mm thick chassis.
Where the new drive shines – aside from the prodigious amount of space available – is in the performance stakes: capable of reading sequential data at a staggering 200MB/s and writing data at a non-too-shabby 160MB/s, the new drive is around twice as fast as Samsung's prior 128GB models.
According to Samsung, this is achieved not via the use of expensive single-level cell (SLC) memory as used by most top-end SSDs, but by a new multi-level cell (MLC) system that is capable of achieving the same speeds as its more expensive counterpart. The use of MLC memory will help to keep costs down to an almost sensible level, and improvements to the storage controller used to drive the chips holds the promise of longevity equal to or greater than a traditional mechanical hard disk.
The drive is expected to be made available in sample quantities to OEMs in September this year, with production quantities shipping by year end in both 2.5” and 1.8” formats. If you're eager to know how much, you'll have to wait – unsurprisingly, Samsung hasn't seen fit to share any pricing information. Whether the use of MLC memory will keep the price down, or whether the company will take advantage of the high performance promised by the drive to slap a premium price tag on it, remains to be seen.
Anyone here hoping to get their hands on one next year and go completely solid-state on their desktop, or is it a technology that should stay in the mobile market even at these speeds? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Electronista broke the news late yesterday regarding Samsung's latest entry into the notebook SSD market with a lovely brushed-metal number storing an impressive 256GB in a standard-size 2.5” and 9.5mm thick chassis.
Where the new drive shines – aside from the prodigious amount of space available – is in the performance stakes: capable of reading sequential data at a staggering 200MB/s and writing data at a non-too-shabby 160MB/s, the new drive is around twice as fast as Samsung's prior 128GB models.
According to Samsung, this is achieved not via the use of expensive single-level cell (SLC) memory as used by most top-end SSDs, but by a new multi-level cell (MLC) system that is capable of achieving the same speeds as its more expensive counterpart. The use of MLC memory will help to keep costs down to an almost sensible level, and improvements to the storage controller used to drive the chips holds the promise of longevity equal to or greater than a traditional mechanical hard disk.
The drive is expected to be made available in sample quantities to OEMs in September this year, with production quantities shipping by year end in both 2.5” and 1.8” formats. If you're eager to know how much, you'll have to wait – unsurprisingly, Samsung hasn't seen fit to share any pricing information. Whether the use of MLC memory will keep the price down, or whether the company will take advantage of the high performance promised by the drive to slap a premium price tag on it, remains to be seen.
Anyone here hoping to get their hands on one next year and go completely solid-state on their desktop, or is it a technology that should stay in the mobile market even at these speeds? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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