SSDs still have a way to go before they are on par with traditional hard drives as far as price and storage capacity goes. Ridata, however, today announced three new SSDs that are at least helping to push the price barrier down to more affordable levels.

The new Ridata SSDs use multi-level cell (MLC) technology that allows the storage of two data bits per cell making for fast read and write speeds with low power consumption. Low power consumption is the key to longer battery life in a notebook and utility savings in the enterprise environment.

The line of SSDs is called the Ridata Ultra-S Plus series and will be available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities. The drives have a mean time between failure of 4,000,000 hours and data integrity is enhanced with static wear leveling and Reed-Solomon ECC. Ridata says that SMART features work to provide a write endurance cycle of up to 1,000,000 times depending on the drive capacity.

According to Ridata, the drives have a read speed of 128MB/sec and a write speed of 80MB/sec.

The Ridata SSDs connect to notebooks and PCs via a traditional SATA connection. The line of drives will be available in late July and according to Engadget; the 32GB SSD will sell for $169.90, the 64GB for $294.90, and the 128GB will sell for $537.90.

The pricing for the 32GB is right in line with OCZ's new Core Series SSDs, however, the 64GB and 128GB models are a bit more expensive. Samsung announced a line of SSDs that also use MLC technology in July.

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It's only been approximately a year and a half since the first 1TB disc drive* got to make the marketplace. Hitachi was the first to bring out its 1TB HDD in January of 2007.
Just this week Hitachi brought out its second generation 1TB HDD with a 43% power savings equated to the first generation. The Hitachi drive applies 3 discs to bring the 1TB capacity and economize energy. Nowadays, Seagate declared the world’s first 1.5TB desktop disc drive known as the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB.

As you are able to gather by the name, the drive spins around at 7,200 RPM and applies four discs to gain the massive 1.5TB capacity. Seagate says that this is the biggest growth in store capacity in the latest 50-years and the 500GB growth in capacity is thanks to improved perpendicular magnetic recording technology.

Along with the 1.5TB 3.5-inch desktop HDD, Seagate as well declared new 500GB 2.5-inch HDDs for use in notebook computer*. The 500GB notebook computer drives will ship in 5,400 and 7,200 rpm varieties. The drives are called the Momentus 5400.6 and Momentus 7200.4 HDDs. The 5,400 RPM drive applies an 8MB memory cache and the 7,200 drive has a 16MB memory cache.

Seagate executive VP and general manager of PC Business Michael Wingert told in a statement, “Organizations and consumers of all kinds worldwide continue to make, share and consume digital content at stages never before seen, giving rise to new markets, new application program* and requirement for desktop and notebook computers with unprecedented storage capacity, performance and reliability. Seagate is committed to powering the next generation of computing nowadays with the planet’s quickest, highest-capacity and most reliable storage solutions.”

Seagate declared in 2006 that it expected capacity of HDDs to hit 2.5TB by 2009. The Seagate 1TB HDD was declared a bit over a year ago in June 2007.

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Samsung announced that its latest SSDs are now in volume production. The new SSDs will be available in 128GB and 64GB capacities. The capacity isn’t what sets these drives apart, rather it’s the multi-level cell (MLC) technology used in the Samsung SSDs.

According to Samsung the new MLC SSDs are capable of providing read speeds of 90MB/s and write speeds of 70MB/s -- performance on par with SSDs using single-level cell technology. The difference is that SSDs built on the MLC technology offer about a 20 times improvement in the typical 4-5 year lifespan of a PC hard drive. Power consumption is another big feature of the MLC SSDs with requirements for 0.2 watts in standby and 0.5 watts in active mode.

Jim Elliott, VP memory marketing for Samsung Semiconductor said in a statement, “With the 64 GB and 128 GB MLC SSDs, we are satisfying the density requirements of most business users and many PC enthusiasts, who will appreciate not only the performance gains and added reliability, but also the more attractive pricing.”

Samsung says that the MLC SSDs will use a 3 Gbps interface and that the 128GB uses 64 MLC NAND flash memory chips of 16 gigabits each and is enclosed in a brushed metallic casing measuring 100mm x 69.8mm and 9.5mm thick. Samsung declined to comment on the pricing of the SSDs.

Samsung first announced the 128GB MLC SSD in January and it is just now entering mass production.

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Super Talent extends its low-cost MLC NAND chips to the 1.8" form-factor

Super Talent caused quite a stir in the solid state disk (SSD) market in early May when it announced a new lineup of "affordable" SATA-II 2.5" SSDs. Whereas most high-speed SSDs were going for thousands of dollars for capacities in the 128GB range, Super Talent dropped a 120GB SSD on an unsuspecting public for a mere $649.

Super Talent is now bringing its reduced-cost SSDs to devices in the 1.8" form-factor. The new Micro-SATA MasterDrive KX SSDs are just 5mm thick and are available in capacities of 30GB, 60GB, and 120GB. The SSDs are priced at $299, $449, and $679 respectively.

Like the 2.5" MasterDrive MX SSDs that were introduced last month, the 1.8" counterparts feature read speeds of 120MB/sec and write speeds of less impressive 40MB/sec. The meager write speeds are a result of the lower-performing multi-level cell (MLC) NAND memory chips used in the SSDs.

"In terms of performance, power consumption, and shock and vibration resistance the MasterDrive KX is substantially better than hard drives. The MasterDrive KX is an excellent upgrade for laptop users looking for greater reliability or to accelerate bootup and load times," said Joe James, Super Talent Marketing Director.

Super Talent will officialy launch the MasterDrive MX SSDs tomorrow for the UMPC market and the drives will be available shortly after for purchase from such online retailers as Newegg and NewBiiz.

Source from DailyTech

Samsung throws down the gauntlet when it comes to SSD performance

The solid state disk (SSD) market is really starting to heat up as more player enter the market and NAND flash memory/controller technology improves. A few weeks ago, Super Talent dazzled consumers with a new "budget" line of SSDs which offered surprisingly large storage capacities at relatively affordable levels.

Samsung today is taking tackling the opposite end of the pricing spectrum with its new 256GB SSDs which it plans to introduce later this year. Samsung's new SATA II SSD should obliterate the competition with read speeds of 200MB/sec and write speeds of an amazing 160MB/sec. This compares to 120MB/sec and 40MB/sec respectively for Super Talents latest SSDs. Even Mtron falls far behind Samsung's new 256GB SSD with read speeds of 120MB/sec and write speeds of 100MB/sec.

Most would take a guess that Samsung is using single-level cell (SLC) NAND chips to achieve these unheard of performance figures, however, the company instead settled on cheaper multi-level cell (MLC) NAND chips.

"With development of the 256GB SSD, the notebook PC is on the brink of a second stage of evolution," said Samsung Memory Marketing VP Jim Elliott. "This change is comparable to the evolution from the Sony Walkman to NAND memory-based MP3 players, representing an initial step in the shift to thinner, smaller SSD-based notebooks with significantly improved performance and more than ample storage."

Given the wide performance delta between Samsung's new 256GB SSD and lesser rivals, the drive will likely come to the market with a price tag that pushing into the multi-thousand dollar range. With a price tag that high, the SSD will likely be relegated to high-end business use and for consumer with plenty of money to burn.

However, as the technology matures, we can expect to see prices drop as we have seen with the offerings from Super Talent. And if Intel has anything to say about it, it will offer SSD performance that will rival all contenders and likely will use its girth to push pricing further down to “mere mortal” levels.

Source from DailyTech

Fujitsu to offer standard height half-terabyte notebook drive

The capacity war in the hard drive industry is in full force and desktop drives are not the only ones benefiting. Current notebook hard drives are at the 500GB mark with recent launches from Hitachi and Samsung when only about 6 months ago the highest capacity notebook drives weighed in at 250GB.

Today, Fujitsu announced its MHZ2 BT line of notebook drives which includes 400GB and 500GB capacities to compete with the capacity of the front-runners in the notebook drive market.

The MHZ2 BT line features a SATA 3.0 Gb/sec interface and an 8MB buffer. The rotational speed clocks in at 4200RPM which may prove to be a bit slow compared to the 5400RPM, 500GB drives from Hitachi and Samsung. Despite the rotational speed, the average seek time while writing is 14ms while average read seek times clock in at 12ms which is comparable to the competition.

The MHZ2 BT drive dimensions conform to the standard 9.5mm drive height which fits all notebook computers as opposed to the 12.5mm drive height of Hitachi's 5K500 and E5K500 series drives. The reason for the 3mm of extra height on the Hitachi drives are mainly due to the extra platters required to reach the 500GB capacity, whereas Fujitsu fits three 166GB platters in its drives.

Fujitsu's MHZ2 BT line of notebook drives shines in the power consumption area as it consumes only 1.8W of power during read/write operations in a SATA 3.0Gb/sec setup, and 0.5W and 0.13W in idle and standby modes respectively.

Fujitsu is aiming for an late May 2008 launch, around the same time-frames as Samsung's planned launch of its SpinPoint M6 series and pricing has not yet been released. Fujitsu also projects sales of the MXZ2 BT line to hit 20 million units within the 2008 fiscal year.

Source from DailyTech

Samsung refreshes 64GB SSD with faster SATA II interface

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are the new hype in high-speed storage solutions and with each new launch comes improvements over the last. Currently, storage space is what many manufacturers are focusing on due to the demand by consumers.

There are still a few details that certain manufacturers are bringing up to speed. Many of the key players in the SSD game are still implementing a PATA interface on their solid-state products which is holding these devices back from performing at the highest levels. This is the reason for Samsung Electronics' most recent launch announcement.

Samsung announced in a press release that its 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch 64GB SSD with a SATA II interface is now in the mass production stage. The new SATA II version of the drive was announced in Q4 2007 and is said to remove the bottlenecks of the PATA interface used in the previous version of the drive.

According to the director of Samsung Semiconductor's flash marketing department, “While there will always be a market for HDDs, we see growing demand for our new SSDs, especially now that they are available with the SATA II interface.”

Due to the inclusion of the SATA II interface on the new refresh, transfer rates on the new 64GB SATA II SSD will increase 60 percent from SATA I versions of the same drive. Instead of the 65 MB/sec read and 45 MB/sec write speeds of the previous PATA SSD drive, the SATA II flavor will produce a maximum write speed of 120 MB/sec read and 100 MB/sec write speeds.

Additionally, because the drive is based on solid-state memory technology, the 64GB SATA II SSD will be able to withstand 1500Gs of shock within a 1/2 ms span, roughly 3 times the amount of shock a traditional hard disk drive would be able to withstand in 2 ms.

Pricing information on the 1.8-inch 64GB SSD is not officially available since these drives are currently an OEM-only option, however, it seems that PC makers such as Dell and Alienware are providing solid-state drives as a $1,000+ option in certain high-end notebook systems.

Recently, Samsung also announced a 128GB SSD using multi-level cell NAND flash which is scheduled for a mid-2008 launch with costs speculated to be around the $2,000 mark. With prices this high, only the super-enthusiasts will opt for these products.

That said, drives such as BitMICROs 832GB SSD that is scheduled for a H2 2008 launch will be completely out of reach for anyone but the mildly wealthy under current price schedules.

Toshiba prepares 32GB, 64GB and 128GB SSDs The solid-state disc (SSD) marketplace is starting to ignite upward and an original musician is willing to hurl its hat into the gang. Toshiba today announced that it will establish an original lineup of multi-level cubicle (MLC) NAND-based SSDs next year. The MLC NAND chips used in the drives are built on a 56nm manufacturing procedure and permit for learn speeds of 100MB/sec and publish speeds of 40MB/sec. The publish learn are not rather aggressive with the latest generation of SSDs from Samsung and Mtron while the publish speeds are far behind.

Samsung's newest SSDs provide write speeds of 100MB/sec and Mtron SSDs loom around the 90MB/sec score. Toshiba will establish its original SATA II SSDs in capacities of 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. All will be accessible in 1. 8 or 2. 5" form-factors and will get an operating living of approximately one million hours. Toshiba expects to exhibit the drives at CES in January and production-level hardware will first be accessible during the best fourth of 2008. Production versions of the 128GB effort, however, aren't expected until May 2008.

As is the case with most original SSD proclamation, there is no word on pricing for the Toshiba’s original SSDs. Prices have dropped as much players have entered the marketplace, but prices have not go downward to the level were simple mortals can give to fall a 64GB SSD into their laptop. Hopefully for consumers, 2008 will be the “Year of the SSD” and will be accompanied by profound cost cuts as the engineering matures.

The Attaché Optima USB Flash drive is apparently the fastest in the world (20MB/sec), but I’d buy it just because of the looks. It’s available in 4 and 8GB models, both Windows Vista ReadyBoost-enabled and featuring AES encryption to keep your files secure.


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Solid-state disks (SSDs) are seen as the next plateau for mobile computing. Companies like Alienware and Dell offer the high-performance drives in their notebook computers and end-users can add SSDs to their own notebooks thanks to online retailers like Newegg.

Samsung first starting making waves in the SSD arena with its 32GB drive in March 2006 and followed up with a faster 64GB unit in June of 2007. Today, Samsung is once again stepping up its efforts in the SSD arena.

The company has announced a new generation of 64GB SSDs which use 8Gb, 50nm single-level-cell (SLC) flash memory chips. The drives, which will be available in 1.8" and 2.5" form-factors, also feature a new SATA II interface for faster performance.

The faster chips and SATA II interface gives the new SSDs sequential write speeds of 100MB/sec and sequential reads of 120MB/sec. These numbers completely obliterate the previous Samsung 64GB offering which is rated at 45MB/sec write and 65MB/sec read. Samsung's first-generation 32GB SSD is rated for 30MB/sec writes and 53MB/sec reads.
"The 64GB SATA II SSD is based on Samsung’s cutting-edge NAND technology with dramatically improved performance specs that are taking system performance to a whole new level of efficiency," stated Samsung director of NAND flash marketing Jim Elliott.

Samsung's new SSDs also now compare favorably with Mtron's family of SSDs which are available in 2.5" and 3.5" form-factors. Those drives feature write speeds of 90MB/sec and read speeds of 120MB/sec.

Samsung is currently sampling the new SATA II SSDs and production examples should follow in early 2008.

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Hitachi goes very green by implementing features to greatly reduce hard disk drive power consumption in the latest Deskstar line

It's rare to find hard disk drive manufacturers focusing on anything other than increasing the speed and capacity of its products because those are the two features consumers look for in hard disk drive products. Hitachi has taken another approach to improving its hard drives by developing drives with reduced power consumption; specifically up to a 40 percent decrease in consumption.

Hitachi introduced the Deskstar P7K500 line of desktop hard disk drives today which contain a number of technologies to reduce power consumption. The first technology Hitachi has implemented in the P7K500 line is the HiVERT technology for a more efficient conversion of voltage. This technology has been borrowed from the Travelstar line of laptop drives along with the more power-efficient profile which allows the drive to handle power saving features better than traditional desktop drives and more like today's mobile drives.

Hitachi has also implemented its Advanced Power Management capabilities which have given the Deskstar line more efficient power handling when idle for generations now. The last feature is Hitachi's patented load/unload technology explained below:

-> Unload idle – The heads are safely unloaded to the ramp and the servo is shut off; this mode delivers power savings of 11 percent better than idle mode.

-> Low RPM idle – The heads are safely unloaded to the ramp, the servo is shut off and the spindle motor RPM is reduced; this setting achieves power savings of 44 percent better than idle mode.

The Deskstar P7K500 line will come in capacities of 250GB, 320GB, 400GB, and 500GB. The technical details are listed below.

Hitachi plans to launch the new P7K500 line during this last quarter of 2007 in mass quantities. Pricing information has not yet been released but we're thinking numbers won't be too much higher than current Deskstar models with similar capacities.

Source from DailyTech

News on the solid state disk (SSD) front has been rather quiet in the past few weeks, but Ridata is making news today with the announcement of its new 32GB 2.5" SATA SSD.

The new 32GB SSD is aimed at the mobile sector -- as its 2.5" form factor suggests -- and has a MTBF of four million hours. Read speeds for the new drive are listed at 60MB/sec while the write speeds are pegged at a meager 48MB/sec.

The performance fares favorably with Samsung's mainstream 64GB SSD which offers read/write speeds of 65MB/sec and 45MB/sec respectively. Mtron’s outrageously priced SSDs, on the other hand, put both to shame with read speeds of 120MB/sec and write speeds of 90MB/sec.

"Our new Ridata SSD offers exceptionally consistent high performance in all environments," said Advanced Media President Harvey Liu. "Compared to a traditional HDD the Ridata SSD is smaller; uses half as much power; is ultra lightweight; offers incredibly fast boot and access times; and operates at a low temperature with no mechanically moving parts. It is the ideal HDD replacement for OEMs, ODMs and system integrators as well as consumers."

The 32GB model will be available in the coming weeks, while a 64GB variant will come to market in late November. Pricing for the 32GB part is listed at $999 while the 64GB model will be priced closer to launch.


Source from DailyTech

When it comes to solid state disks (SSDs), pricing concerns have ensured that consumers only see relatively small storage capacities. While traditional mobile 2.5" HDDs can be had in capacities of up to 300GB, typical consumer SSDs are only available in sizes of 32GB or 64GB. Despite those meager capacities, pricing hovers around $450 and $1,000 respectively for both.

Some manufacturers have bucked the trend by offering larger capacity SSDs aimed at industrial and military markets. Mtron, Adtron and PQI offer SSDs in capacities of up to 128GB, 160GB and 256GB respectively.

Thanks to the latest bit of news to come through the DailyTech inbox, we can report that BiTMICRO is surpassing all rivals with a 416GB 2.5" ATA-133 SSD. The E-Disk Altima family of SSDs (4GB to 416GB) uses single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory and offer 133MB/sec burst speeds. BiTMICRO also claims that the drive has sustained read/write speeds of 100MB/sec and can crank out 20,000 Random IOPS.

"The launch of the E-Disk Altima series of cutting-edge solid state flash drives will usher in a new computing era, where solid state mass storage will combine with multi-core processors to deliver unprecedented levels of performance required by next-generation operating systems and applications," said Rudy Bruce, BiTMICRO Networks' Executive VP for Marketing and Sales.

BiTMICRO will ship samples of its E-Disk Altima family in Q1 2008 and production models will ship in March 2008.


Source from DailyTech

Seagate this week announced two new hard drives for desktops and notebook computers. The new desktop hard drive is a 1TB 3.5-inch internal drive with integrated government-grade encryption technology to keep data safe from unauthorized users. The drive is called the Barracuda FDE for full disk encryption and is the world’s first 3.5-inch desktop hard drive with native encryption and uses the same technology as the Momentus FDE notebook hard drives.

Seagate employs AES, which is the strongest level of commercially available encryption protocols. The Barracuda FDE encrypts the entire drive’s contents for full protection when the system is off. Booting a computer with a Baraccuda FDE drive requires the user to enter a pre-boot password. The Barracuda FDE desktop drive is available in capacities up to 1TB and has a 7200-rpm spindle speed.

Additionally, Seagate also introduced a new notebook drive -- the Momentus 5400.4. The new Momentus notebook drive uses a standard 2.5-inch form factor with a 5400-rpm spindle speed and packs a full 250GB of storage into a notebook-sized form factor. While this Seagate drive gives up storage capacity to the 320GB Toshiba notebook drive recently announced, the new 250GB is the largest notebook drive made by Seagate.

To reach this high level of storage, Seagate employs perpendicular magnetic recording technology it pioneered on the 750GB Barracuda hard drive last year. The Momentus 5400.4 also has improved durability with an operating shock tolerance of 325 Gs and a non-operating shock tolerance of 900 Gs.

The Momentus 5400.4 is scheduled to ship to system builders in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the Barracuda FDE is on track for shipment in 2008. Seagate has no comment on pricing of either drive at this time.

Source from DailyTech

Storage capacity never ceases to increase, while form factor appears to move in the inverse direction. Toshiba Storage Device Division announced its 160GB 1.8-inch hard disk drive. The new drive uses the CE-ATA interface – designed for optimal performance and power utilization in small devices – and marks the first drive from Toshiba with the technology.

In addition to the two-platter 160GB drive, Toshiba will also offer a single-platter 80GB model. Both drives achieve an areal density of 353 megabits per square millimetre (228 gigabits per square inch). In addition to increased capacity, Toshiba has reduced the power consumption of the 160GB HDD to 0.002W/GB, which is 33 percent less than the previous 1.8-inch 100GB model, said the company.

"Toshiba's new 1.8-inch HDDs build on our long-time leadership in this key product segment and gives CE manufacturers the tools to create smaller, lighter and more compelling handheld devices," said Scott Maccabe, vice president and general manager of Toshiba Storage Device Division. "Storage is an integral part of the digital experience, and these small form factor HDDs deliver the capacity, power efficiency and throughput to support, if not accelerate, consumer demand for sophisticated portable computing, multimedia and entertainment devices."

Toshiba’s new 80 and 160GB drives are expected to be used digital audio players, digital video recorders, copiers, mobile PCs and more. Interestingly, the capacities of Toshiba’s newly announced drives match up with the storage sizes of the newest iPod classic players announced yesterday – though neither company has made any indication of which drives Apple is sourcing.

The new 1.8-inch HDDs are being integrated by OEM partners for consumer products slated for the holiday season.


Source from DailyTech