Toshiba unveils speedy 512GB SSD

Toshiba has unveiled a 512GB solid state drive (SSD) which it claims breaks both speed and size records in the notebook SSD market.

The 2.5-inch notebook drive is based on Toshiba's 43nm multi-level cell NAND flash technology, and claims write speeds of up to 200MBps and read speeds of up to 240MBps. Intel rates its latest 80GB X-25M SSDs at 250MB per second read speeds and up to 70MB per second write speeds.

The drives are scheduled for mass production in Q2 2009, by which stage Toshiba expects SSDs to represent 10 per cent of all notebook drives. The company expects this figure to grow to 25 per cent by 2012.

Toshiba's drives are available in either 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch form factors.
(Credit: Toshiba)

Toshiba has not released pricing on the new SSDs, but currently the largest 250GB SSD available in Australia retails for approximately $1,300 from OCZ technology.

In addition to the 512GB model, Toshiba will also be offering similar drives with 256GB, 128GB and 64GB capacities in both 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch form factors. Toshiba claims a mean time to failure of one million hours on all its new SSDs.

SSD drives, unlike conventional magnetic HDDs, have no moving parts, relying instead on flash-based memory. This results in more rugged, smaller and longer lasting disks. However, SSDs to date had been substantially more expensive than traditional magnetic disk-based hard drives.