Home New Ultrastar SSD sports 25-nm SLC NAND
News

New Ultrastar SSD sports 25-nm SLC NAND

Geoff Gasior
Disclosure
Disclosure
In our content, we occasionally include affiliate links. Should you click on these links, we may earn a commission, though this incurs no additional cost to you. Your use of this website signifies your acceptance of our terms and conditions as well as our privacy policy.

Consumer-grade SSDs started making the transition to 25-nm NAND early last year. We saw enterprise-oriented drives based on MLC flash make the jump, as well, but nothing on the SLC front—until now. Hitachi has begun shipping the “industry’s first” enterprise-class SSD with 25-nm SLC NAND.

The Ultrastar SSD400S.B was developed in conjunction with Intel, which fabricates the drive’s memory chips. Intel’s controller tech is also a part of the drive, although it’s been grafted to Hitachi’s interface logic to offer 6Gbps SAS compatibility. Hitachi says the new Ultrastar can sustain read and write speeds of 536 and 502MB/s, respectively. The drive is rated for 57,500 random-read IOps and 25,500 IOps with random writes. Those random I/O performance ratings are only slightly improved over the Ultrastar SSD400M, which is essentially the same drive with Intel’s enterprise-grade MLC NAND. That model can only reach 495MB/s with sustained reads and 385MB/s with writes, though.

SLC NAND has been prized more for its superior endurance than faster performance, and the latest Ultrastar should deliver on that front. While its MLC-based sibling is expected to burn out after writing 7.3 petabytes worth of data, the Ultrastar SSD400S.B can purportedly process 35 petabytes of writes, nearly a five-fold increase in endurance. Interestingly, that 35-petabyte rating is mirrored by the old SSD400S, which uses 34-nm SLC flash. If any die-level endurance was lost in the transition from 34- to 25-nm flash, the drive is making up for it elsewhere.

The Ultrastar SSD400S.B is available in 100, 200, and 400GB capacities. Full-disk encryption is optional, and the warranty is five years or 35 petabytes—whichever comes first, presumably. There’s no mention of pricing, but if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford one. Amazon has the 400GB version of the old Ultrastar SSD400S listed at over $5,000.

Latest News

Apple Might Join Hands with Google or OpenAI for Their AI Tech
News

Apple Is Reportedly Planning to Join Hands with Google or OpenAI to License Their AI Tools

YouTube Launches New Tool To Help Label AI-generated Content
News

YouTube Launches a New Tool to Help Creators Label AI-Generated Content

YouTube released a tool that will make creators clearly label the parts of their content that are generated by AI. The initiative was first launched in November in an attempt...

Ripple Dumps 240 Million XRP Tokens Amid 17% Price Decline
Crypto News

Ripple Dumps 240 Million XRP Tokens Amid 17% Price Decline

Popular crypto payment platform Ripple has released 240 million XRP tokens in its latest escrow unlock for March. This comes at a time when XRP’s price has declined significantly. Data from...

Crypto Expert Draws A Links Between Shiba Inu And Ethereum
Crypto News

Crypto Expert Draws Link Between Shiba Inu And Ethereum

The Lucrative FTX Bankruptcy Trade and Ongoing Legal Battle
Crypto News

The Lucrative FTX Bankruptcy Trade and Ongoing Legal Battle

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Set to Enter “Danger Zone” – Time to Back-Off or Bag More Coins?
Crypto News

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Set to Enter “Danger Zone” – Time to Back-Off or Bag More Coins?

SNB to Kick Off Rate Cut Cycle Sooner Than Expected
News

SNB to Kick-Start Rate Cut Cycle Sooner Than Expected