Toshiba begins mass production of MLC NAND Solid State Drives

To achieve performance levels of 100MB/second read and 40MB/second write in these first generation drives, Toshiba utilized a SATA II interface and an original MLC controller supporting fast read-write speed, parallel data transfer, and wear-leveling. As a result, Toshiba SSDs achieve overall PC Benchmark scores better than 5400 rpm and 7200rpm HDD and comparable to selected SATA SLC NAND SSDs (based on internal test results from Toshiba). The SSD drives excel in Windows Vista™ boot speed, application loading, general usage and virus scan. Compared to hard disk drives, SSDs realize a number of advantages that address needs in the mobile computing market for performance, ruggedness, and lightweight, compact form factors.

The Toshiba 64GB embedded module MLC NAND SSD is also ready for mass production. Additional models in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch drive enclosures are scheduled to sample next month.