256Gbyte SSD flaunts 12.5mm form

Super Talent Technology has introduced a 256Gbyte solid-state drive (SSD) that the company claims is thinner than any other similar capacity SSD for notebooks and other mobile devices.

The 2.5-inch drive, with the model number FSD56GC25H, is 12.5mm thin, or slightly less than a half-inch. Super Talent claims the drive is 40 percent thinner than other similar drives.

The drive uses an industry standard Serial ATA-I interface, making it interchangeable with conventional 2.5-inch Serial ATA hard drives. The new product has an access time of 0.1ms, and maximum read and write speeds of 65MBps and 50MBps, respectively. Super Talent claims the drive can withstand shocks five times greater than traditional HDDs.

"We designed this drive for applications that need rugged and reliable storage in a very compact form factor," Joe James, marketing director for Super Talent, said in a statement.

The drive is designed, manufactured and tested in Super Talent's California headquarters. Samples are available, and pricing is given on request.

Solid storage
SSDs are faster and more rugged than HDDs, but are also far more expensive. As a result, the drives are mostly used in notebooks used by the military, or by people who work outside. Manufacturers, however, have also started integrating SSDs with HDDs. So-called "hybrid drives" can store the OS in the SSD, for example, for a faster startup time.

Intel and Micron Technology last month said they have developed technology for a high-speed SSD that's 5x faster than current products used in consumer and professional devices ranging from handheld computers and notebooks to digital cameras and camcorders.

The NAND flash memory chips developed jointly by the two companies can reach speeds of up to 200MBps for reading data and 100MBps for writing data, the partners said.

- Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek