Leave it to Toshiba to make some of the world's firsts. Right now, they've just created the industry's first 512GB solid state 2.5 inch hard drive. Solid state drives are popolar amongst ultra portable laptops since they don't have any moving part and thus makes boot-up much faster and reduces the risk of data corruption. They're also quite expensive that's why only high end ultra portables use them. One of the main disadvantages of Solid State drives in the past is that their capacity is limited but with the creation of a 512GB SSD, I guess more ultraportables will be using SSDs in the future. Of course, prices would still be ultra high.

PRESS RELEASE

IRVINE, Calif. and TOKYO, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba Corp. (Toshiba) and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)*, its subsidiary in the Americas, today announced the expansion of their line up of NAND-flash-based solid state drives (SSD) with the industry's first 2.5-inch 512-gigabyte (G(1) SSD and a broad family of fast read/write SSDs based on 43 nanometer (nm) Multi-Level Cell NAND. The new drives provide a high level of performance and endurance for use in notebook computers, gaming and home entertainment systems, and will be showcased at International CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 8 - 11, 2009.

In addition to the 2.5-inch, 512GB drive, the 43nm NAND SSD family also includes capacities of 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB, offered in 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch drive enclosures or as SSD Flash Modules. Samples of the new drives will be available in the first quarter (January to March) of 2009, with mass production in the second (April to June) quarter.

Toshiba's second-generation SSDs bring increased capacity and performance for notebook computers. They utilize an advanced MLC controller, which is also compatible with further advanced processes, that achieves higher read/write speeds, parallel data transfers and wear leveling to optimize performance, reliability and endurance. The drives enable improved system responsiveness with a maximum sequential read speed of 240MB per second (MBps)(2) and maximum sequential write speed of 200MBps enabling an improvement in overall computing experience, and faster boot and application loading times. The drives also offer AES data encryption to prevent unauthorized data access.

"The solid state drive market is evolving rapidly, with higher performance drives to meet market requirements, and differentiated product families targeted for appropriate applications," said Mr. Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Vice President of Toshiba Corporation's Semiconductor Company. "This new 43nm SSD family balances value/performance characteristics for its targeted consumer applications, through use of MLC NAND and an advanced controller architecture."

Toshiba and many market analysts expect SSDs to begin to gain significant traction in the market in 2009, growing to approximately 10% of the notebook market by 2010, and 25% of the notebook market by 2012. Toshiba expects the value/performance of its MLC NAND-based SSD line-up to help speed the acceptance of solid state storage.

Toshiba will continue to promote innovations that widen the horizons of the NAND Flash market and support its continued leadership in that market. The company will spur demand for SSDs in notebook PCs, netbooks, laptops and digital consumer products by enhancing its lineup, offering products with different densities and interfaces in a range of packages, while advancing device performance. For more information on Toshiba SSDs, please visit ssd.toshiba.com.

    Outline of the new products

    Form Factor             Capacity  Product Number   Samples    Start of Mass Production

    2.5-inch Serial ATA-2   512GB     THNS512GG8BB     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    2.5-inch Serial ATA-2   256GB     THNS256GG8BB     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    2.5-inch Serial ATA-2   128GB     THNS128GG4BB     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    2.5-inch Serial ATA-2   64GB      THNS064GG2BB     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    1.8-inch Serial ATA-2   256GB     THNS256GG8BA     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    1.8-inch Serial ATA-2   128GB     THNS128GG4BA     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    1.8-inch Serial ATA-2   64GB      THNS064GG2BA     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    1.8-inch Flash Module   256GB     THNS256GG8BM     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    1.8-inch Flash Module   128GB     THNS128GG4BM     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

    1.8-inch Flash Module   64GB      THNS064GG2BM     1Q, 2009   2Q, 2009

Product specification

                    2.5-inch Serial     1.8-inch Serial    1.8-inch Flash

                    ATA-2               ATA-2              Module Serial ATA-2

    Size            69.9 (W) x 9.5(H)   54.0(W) x 5.0(H)   53.6(W) x 3.0(H) x

                    x100(D) mm          x78.5(D) mm        70.6(D) mm

    Mass            66g (Typ.)          44g (Typ.)         15g (Typ.)

    Interface       Serial ATA-2 (3Gbps)(3)

    Voltage         3.3V (Module, 1.8-inch type), 5V (2.5-inch type)

    Reading speed   Maximum speed 240MBps (sequential mode)

    Writing speed   Maximum speed at 200MBps (sequential mode)

    Temperature     0 to 70 degrees Celsius

    MTTF(4)         1 million hours