Samsung Electronics, il gigante coreano operante nel settore della produzione dei dispositivi elettronici a semiconduttore e, più in generale, in quello della elettronica di consumo, ha reso noto di aver avviato la produzione in volumi di un nuovo drive a stato solido, o SSD (Solid State Drive), realizzato in tecnologia MLC (Multi-Level Cell) nei formati da 1.8-inch e 2.5-inch ed avente una capacità di memorizzazione pari a ben 128Gb. Simultaneamente alla produzione di questi drive, Samsung ha cominciato quella delle versioni a 64Gb.

Le soluzioni da 128Gb sono state ottenute mediante il ricorso a 64 circuiti NAND in tecnologia MLC, ciascuno dei quali ha una capacità di 16 gigabit. In accordo al costruttore, questi SSD hanno una velocità di scrittura pari a 70Mb/s ed una velocità di lettura pari a 90Mb/s (l'interfaccia è compliant con SATA 3.0Gb/s) e, soprattutto, una vita fisica "20 volte superiore a quella dei comuni hard drive a disco magnetico che equipaggiano i notebook".

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Seoul, Korea – July 9, 2008: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing 1.8- and 2.5-inch multi-level cell (MLC)-based solid state drives (SSD) with a 128 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity. Mass production of the Samsung MLC-based 64GB SSD also began this month.

“With the 64 GB and 128 GB MLC SSDs, we are satisfying the density requirements of most business users and many PC enthusiasts, who will appreciate not only the performance gains and added reliability, but also the more attractive pricing,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

Samsung SSDs feature far greater reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives. Power consumption for the Samsung SSD is exceptionally low in standby mode at approximately 0.2 watts and in active mode at 0.5 watts.

The Samsung MLC-based SSD has a write speed of 70MB/s and a read speed of 90MB/s - performance levels that approach those of single-level-cell (SLC)-based SSDs now in mass production. Moreover, the new 128GB SSD will last approximately 20 times longer than the generally accepted 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive.

Featuring a 3.0 gigabit-per-second interface, the 128GB MLC-based SSD consists of 64 MLC NAND flash memory chips of 16 gigabits each, optimized single-chip controller technology and advanced flash-management firmware technology. Enclosed in a brushed metallic casing, it measures 100mm x 69.8mm and is only 9.5mm thick.

Samsung is aggressively expanding its SSD market offerings. It introduced a 64GB SSD in the second half of 2007, and plans to begin producing a 256GB at the end of this year. Samsung’s mass production of 128GB SSDs helps it to maintain its position as the leading producer of SSDs in the world, with capacities ranging from 32GB to the highest available today.

Samsung expects sales of SSD units to increase 800 percent between now and 2010, keeping SSDs on pace to be the largest growth segment in the NAND flash market over the next few years.

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