Toshiba readies half-terabyte SSD for early 2009


by Cyril Kowaliski — 12:30 PM on December 18, 2008

Slowly, but surely, 2.5" solid-state drives are catching up to their mechanical brethren in terms of capacity (as long as you don't mind paying considerably more, of course). This morning, Toshiba announced a 2.5" 512GB SSD that's supposedly the first of its kind. Samples of the drive will start to roll out next quarter, and Toshiba will begin mass production in the second quarter of 2009.

This creatively named THNS512GG8BB SSD is based on 43nm multi-level cell NAND flash memory, and Toshiba gives it speed ratings of 240MB/s for sequential writes and 200MB/s for sequential reads. The drive connects via a standard 300MB/s Serial ATA interface, has AES encryption support, and weighs in at only 66 grams (just over two ounces).

Since buying one of these puppies will presumably involve mortgaging your house and handing over your first born, Toshiba has also announced lower-capacity models with the same perks and production schedule. The firm is prepping 256GB, 128GB, and 64GB derivatives that'll be available with 2.5", regular 1.8", or bare 1.8" form factors (see the picture above). According to this page, all of these offerings have the same performance ratings as the top-of-the-line 512GB model.

   
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