Toshiba launches 512GB SSD

When I said “near future”, in April this year, I never imagined that I would be making this post in 2008. Toshiba has just registered a historical record, with the launch of the first 2.5-inch solid state drive with 512GB of capacity. It will be demonstrated at CES 2009, between January 8 and 11, in Las Vegas (USA).

Toshiba 512GB SSD

The SSD manufactured by the new 43 nanometer process developed by the company, with a very dense multi-level cell storage (Multi-Level Cell NAND), which allowed it to double the record of 256GB registered a few months ago.

But the gains were not just in capacity: the new drives are also faster, with read speeds of up to 240MB per second, and up to 200MB per second of recording. The components also offer great longevity, of approximately one million hours (114 years) between failures.

The new SSD can also be encrypted via AES, offering complete protection for the data stored on it. It connects to a conventional notebook drive bay via the SATA interface.

Toshiba also took the opportunity to announce drives smaller than 1.8 inches with versions of 64GB, 128GB and 256GB, excellent for ultraportable notebooks. The expectation that they will all reach mass production in the second quarter of 2009.

It won't be long before we say goodbye to traditional hard drives. Toshiba's expectation that SSDs will be in 25% of notebooks shipped in 2012. Meanwhile, Samsung has recently started producing a 256GB SSD. Come on, let's go!