Solid state hybrid drives feature NAND flash memory

6th January 2015

Toshiba

Nat Bowers

0 0

Equipped with the company's 19nm 2nd gen NAND flash memory, Toshiba Electronics Europe has announced a series of Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHDs). The MQ02ABD100H provides a 1TB capacity in a 9.5mm high form factor, while the MQ02ABF050H offers a capacity of 500GB in a drive 9.5mm high.

Both SSHDs are suitable for high-performance PCs such as mainstream and gaming PCs, while the MQ02ABF050H's height of 7mm makes it suitable for ultra-thin or ultra-portable computing devices. Both are compatible in terms of physical size and interface with a traditional 2.5" HDD, allowing for improved physical space efficiency within a system compared to alternatives that use a discrete SSD cache drive alongside an HDD. Systems can access the drive through a single interface without the need for specific device driver software.

According to Toshiba, the SSHDs deliver better performance compared to traditional HDDs because NAND is used as the secondary cache during operation. This enables customers to see improvements to the drive’s performance compared to an HDD, while still maintaining the equivalent capacities of traditional HDDs.

The NAND controller function is merged into the main HDD controller chip, facilitating more integrated management of the HDD and NAND operation compared to previous SSHDs which featured separate NAND and HDD controller chips. Toshiba’s NAND controller technologies enable capabilities such as defective block management, ECC, conversion of logical block address and wear-levelling.

Sample shipments will begin from February 2015.