Samsung's prototype drive has a read speed of 200MB/sec.
Samsung Electronics announced yesterday that it plans to begin selling a solid-state disk drive for laptops this year that has 256GB capacity and a high-speed interface.
The drive, which was unveiled in prototype form at a Samsung event in Taipei, has the same size as a 9.5-millimeter high 2.5-in. hard disk drive for which it is designed to be a drop-in replacement.
Solid-state disks (SSDs) are an emerging type of storage device that use flash memory chips in place of the spinning magnetic disks used in hard disk drives. The memory chips mean the drives are more sturdy and typically have a higher performance but the per-byte storage cost is also much higher, so they are generally more expensive. That has largely restricted them to niche applications but as flash prices come down they are expected to become more widely used.
Samsung, which is one of the world's largest makers of flash memory chips, is eager to see the drives become popular as their widespread use will represent a big new market for its chips.
The prototype drive announced by the company has a read speed of 200MB/sec. and a sequential write speed of 160MB/sec., Samsung said.
Samples of the drive will be available to customers from September with mass production due by the end of the year.
A version with a similar size to a 1.8-in. drive is also expected to be available in the fourth quarter of the year, the company said.
The drive isn't the first SSD launched at this capacity. Last month a competitor, San Jose-based Super Talent Technology Corp., began sales of a 256GB SSD, but that drive is thicker than Samsung's at 12.5 millimeters. It has a SATA I interface, which means read speeds of 65MB/sec. and write speeds of 50MB/sec.
Samsung Electronics announced yesterday that it plans to begin selling a solid-state disk drive for laptops this year that has 256GB capacity and a high-speed interface.
The drive, which was unveiled in prototype form at a Samsung event in Taipei, has the same size as a 9.5-millimeter high 2.5-in. hard disk drive for which it is designed to be a drop-in replacement.
Solid-state disks (SSDs) are an emerging type of storage device that use flash memory chips in place of the spinning magnetic disks used in hard disk drives. The memory chips mean the drives are more sturdy and typically have a higher performance but the per-byte storage cost is also much higher, so they are generally more expensive. That has largely restricted them to niche applications but as flash prices come down they are expected to become more widely used.
Samsung, which is one of the world's largest makers of flash memory chips, is eager to see the drives become popular as their widespread use will represent a big new market for its chips.
The prototype drive announced by the company has a read speed of 200MB/sec. and a sequential write speed of 160MB/sec., Samsung said.
Samples of the drive will be available to customers from September with mass production due by the end of the year.
A version with a similar size to a 1.8-in. drive is also expected to be available in the fourth quarter of the year, the company said.
The drive isn't the first SSD launched at this capacity. Last month a competitor, San Jose-based Super Talent Technology Corp., began sales of a 256GB SSD, but that drive is thicker than Samsung's at 12.5 millimeters. It has a SATA I interface, which means read speeds of 65MB/sec. and write speeds of 50MB/sec.
