Toshiba readies solid state drive for 2008
Toshiba announced yesterday that it will be showcasing a 128GB NAND-flash-based solid-state drive (SSD) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January.
The chipmaker said that production of the drives will go ahead in the first quarter of 2008 with a view to commercial release shortly after that, most likely in May, according to Reuters.
Toshiba said the NAND-based storage device will offer three different capacities: 32GB, 64GB and 128GB.
According to a statement released by the manufacturer yesterday, SSDs consume less power and generate less noise compared to hard drives, "but market penetration has been held back by low densities and high prices".
The announcement comes after a slew of similar releases earlier in the year with Samsung and Toshiba partner SanDisk offering new SSD products in the second quarter of 2007, and Fujitsu including SSD technology as an option in its LifeBook portable computer range.