Toshiba announces 512GB SSD 240/200 MB/s (read/write)

[Helmore]

It had all been rather quiet from Toshiba on the SSD front, but it is back with a thunder clap...
Having talked up the prospects of a half gig model earlier in the year the SanDisk fab sharing giant has at last formally announced the expansion of its line-up to include a 2.5in 512GB drive based on 43nm MLC NAND flash.
Potentially even more exciting however is what Toshiba has managed to squeeze out of this SSD in terms of performance with the company quoting heart stoppingly quick 240MBps read and 200MBps write speeds and MTBF rates (mean time before failure) of one million hours.

Link to quote: http://www.trustedreviews.com/storag...g-Quick-SSD/p1
Link to where they got it from: http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewConte...4943967&EDATE=
Link to specs at Toshiba: http://www.toshiba.com/taec/Catalog/...amilyid=900314

The bad part is, they will be available in Q2 of 2009. Oh and there is no information available about pricing.
Now, how long until we have 1TB SSDs? I guess that won't take long with the rate of progression that we currently have with SSDs. My only hope is that prices will drop as the same rate as speed and capacity are increasing.

[RejZoR]

Why can't they release some 256GB or 512GB disk with speeds like 100MB/s for read and write. That should be fairly cheaper and still fast enough.
But now they pump loads of super fast and super expensive drives that no one buys. How stupid is that?

[Helmore]

Why can't they release some 256GB or 512GB disk with speeds like 100MB/s for read and write. That should be fairly cheaper and still fast enough.
But now they pump loads of super fast and super expensive drives that no one buys. How stupid is that?

I think they would still have to use the same NAND flash chips as on the faster drives and that is what makes the drive expensive. The controller chips is what mainly dictates it's performance and that is fairly cheap to manufacture (although not to develop). So making slower drives may not really reduce price all that much and that's why this is a better solution for them. Just my guess though, maybe some more knowledgeable guys could comment on this (like Tony for example).

[LowRun]

Nice job Toshiba, now price them ~100€ and i'll slap one in my lappy

[SAE]

1500,- would be more realistic...

[clonez]

at least, i guess theyre even more expensive

its the price to pay for having the ultimate drive in youre pc (apart from those whacko fusion io drives; theres one 512gb card there, too ==> 14k$)

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I don't get why they'd make a 512gig version first. Why not a 64, 128 and 256. Who needs a 512gig drive?

I would be more than happy with a 64 or 128 gig drive for vista and a VR for progs w/ lots of writes.

[T_Flight]

Yep, still looking like about 2 years before these are viable. They gotta get the storage *and* the speed up, and they have the get the cost down...way way down. 1 dollar per GB at speeds, with large amounts of storage. I figure we're right on schedule within that 2 years timeframe.

So...Spring of 2011 sounds about right.

[m^2]

I don't get why they'd make a 512gig version first. Why not a 64, 128 and 256. Who needs a 512gig drive?

I would be more than happy with a 64 or 128 gig drive for vista and a VR for progs w/ lots of writes.

Don't forget about 16!
It seems that Super Talent is the only one who still makes new drives with this capacity...still much better than nothing though.

[JayCop]

I completely agree with T_Flight. In two years these may be viable drives for most of us if they can give us dirves like these at about $1 per gigabyte. I would jump on a couple of those real fast.

[clayton]

By then, the fast will get even faster. =)

[TurboDiv]

You guys look at only the marketing specifications of read and write. How about those latencies or whatever they had tested before for many small files read and write or something similar. I think it was not only those reads and writes that matter entirely...

[largon]

I wonder what chips they use in this drive.
Some sampling stage Samsung 256Gbit ICs, maybe?

[WaxCactus]

why cant they release a big space like 512GB with mainstream speeds [witch will still surpass HDD speeds] and cheaper i think this way the SDD will replace HDD faster

[largon]

It is the capacity that costs. High density flash is silly expensive.
Speed is a side-effect.

[m^2]

why cant they release a big space like 512GB with mainstream speeds [witch will still surpass HDD speeds] and cheaper i think this way the SDD will replace HDD faster

Helmore already answered this question.

[Shintai]

It is the capacity that costs. High density flash is silly expensive.
Speed is a side-effect.

Yep, basicly opposite of HDs.

[Calmatory]

I'd be perfectly fine with 8 or 16 GB drive for my laptop. Heck, even fast 4 GB would do wonders against this 4k RPM 80 GB drive.

[XS Janus]

It is
Speed is a side-effect.

And a nice one I must add

[Helmore]

I don't get why they'd make a 512gig version first. Why not a 64, 128 and 256. Who needs a 512gig drive?

I would be more than happy with a 64 or 128 gig drive for vista and a VR for progs w/ lots of writes.

They are also launching 64, 128 and 256 GB versions of pretty much the same drive. There will be 1,8" SSD drives from 64 to 256 GB and 2,5" SSD drives from 64 all the way up to 512 GB.

You guys look at only the marketing specifications of read and write. How about those latencies or whatever they had tested before for many small files read and write or something similar. I think it was not only those reads and writes that matter entirely...

The problem has so far only been with random writes, random reads is what an SSD excels at and where an ordinary HDD can't even come close.

I wonder what chips they use in this drive.
Some sampling stage Samsung 256Gbit ICs, maybe?

They use chips made by Toshiba and SanDisk (they share fabs) on their 43nm. process, so no Samsung.

BTW, all this data can simply be found in the links that I provided.

[Pillo-kun]

I need a 512Gb disk. gimme gimme. dont care about disks that are smaller then 100gb

[Serra]

'bout time. Maybe by 2012 it will even be affordable.

I look forward to eventually being able to have an SSD without having to buy a second hard drive for mass storage (this requirement greatly limited my laptop selection).

[003]

I don't get why they'd make a 512gig version first. Why not a 64, 128 and 256. Who needs a 512gig drive?

I would be more than happy with a 64 or 128 gig drive for vista and a VR for progs w/ lots of writes.

Umm, I have well over 1.5tb stored on my hard drives.

[MaxxxRacer]

Umm, I have well over 1.5tb stored on my hard drives.

I think he meant who needs a 512Gb OS Driver. I know I sure down. 100GB is all I need for an OS drive. Right now I just have a single 36GB raptor with 13GB free.

As for data storage 1TB is a good amount