Solid State Drives feature serial attached SCSI interface.

Press Release Summary:



Intended for enterprise applications, Single Level Cell NAND-based SSDs offer up to 25,000/20,000 random Input/Output operations/sec for 4 KB data block size read/write, and storage capacities up to 100 GB. Drives are available in 2.5 in. small form factor and feature dual ported SAS redundancy and non-volatile cache. Applications include servers, direct-attached storage, and network-attached storage.



Original Press Release:



Toshiba Announces SAS Interface Solid State Drive for Servers



New SAS-SSD to Meet Demand for Higher IOPS and Lower Power Consumption in Enterprise Applications

IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 8 /-- Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) today announced the expansion of its line up of NAND-flash-based solid state drives (SSD) into the enterprise storage market with the company's first Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND-based SSDs. The drives feature the serial attached SCSI (SAS) interface, which is expected to gain momentum in the high-performance enterprise storage market in 2009. Toshiba's new enterprise SSDs address market demands for the performance advantages and power savings of solid state storage for applications in servers, direct-attached storage and network-attached storage.

Toshiba's initial enterprise SSD lineup utilizes the company's latest high endurance SLC NAND and will offer random Input/Output operations Per Second (IOPS) up to 25,000/20,000 for a 4Kbyte data block size read/write, and storage capacities of up to 100 gigabyte (GB) (1). The drives will be available in 2.5-inch Small Form Factor and offer many enterprise features, such as dual ported SAS redundancy and non-volatile cache. Samples of the new drives will be available in late first quarter of 2009, with mass production in the second quarter.

"SLC NAND solid state drives in the enterprise space offer a significant value proposition, achieving lower $/IOPS, which until now was not economically possible," said Scott Nelson, vice president memory, for TAEC. "Our enterprise-class SSDs are targeted for use in business critical applications that require storage performance only available from solid state drives, such as Tier 0 virtual memory in storage arrays. In this environment, an SSD solution provides a more cost effective solution in the mix of traditional high speed memory cache and multiple 'short-stroke' hard disk drives."

"The total cost of ownership advantages that SSDs provide in enterprise solutions are especially attractive to end customers," Nelson continued. "The operational power savings of solid state drive technology over HDD, in terms of watts consumed to operate and cool, is calculated to be about 240 percent less for SLC and up to 800 percent less using MLC SSD (2), and supports the trend toward 'greener' data centers."

"The enterprise market is poised to reap the dramatic benefits of SSDs and the development of a SAS-based SSD is an important milestone in the adoption of NAND flash in storage arrays," said Michael Cornwell, lead technologist for flash memory at Sun. "As a leader in flash-based storage solutions, Sun is pleased to collaborate with Toshiba to provide customers with new SAS-based SSD options that accelerate performance and increase efficiency while lowering power consumption."

Toshiba, as the inventor of NAND Flash, will continue drive innovations that widen the horizons of the NAND Flash in the emerging enterprise solid state storage market. The company will spur demand for SSDs in enterprise applications, notebook PCs, netbooks, laptops and digital consumer products by enhancing its lineup, offering products with different densities and interfaces in a range of packages, while advancing device performance. For more information on Toshiba SSDs, please visit ssd.toshiba.com.

Outline of the new products

Form Factor  Capacity  Product Number   Samples      Start of Mass
Production
2.5 inch 50/100GB THNS064GF8BEAA late Q1/09 Q2/09


*About Toshiba Corp. and TAEC

Through proven commitment, lasting relationships and advanced, reliable electronic components, Toshiba enables its customers to create market-leading designs. Toshiba is the heartbeat within product breakthroughs from OEMs, ODMs, CMs, distributors and fabless chip companies worldwide. A committed electronic components leader, Toshiba designs and manufactures high-quality flash memory-based storage solutions, discrete devices, displays, advanced materials, medical tubes, custom SoCs/ASICs, digital multimedia and imaging products, microcontrollers and wireless components that make possible today's leading cell phones, MP3 players, cameras, medical devices, automotive electronics and more.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, Japan's largest semiconductor manufacturer and the world's third largest semiconductor manufacturer (Gartner, 2007 WW Semiconductor Revenue, April 2008). For additional company and product information, please visit http://www.toshiba.com/taec/.

(1) When used herein in relation to memory density, gigabyte and/or GB means 1,024x1,024x1,024 = 1,073,741,824 bytes. Usable capacity may be less. For details, please refer to specifications.

(2) Source: IDC, "The Cost to Power and Control the World External Storage," May 2008.

CONTACT: Company, Rebecca Bueno of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., +1-949-623-3098, rebecca.bueno@taec.toshiba.com

Web Site: www.chips.toshiba.com/ www.ssd.toshiba.com/ http://www.toshiba.com/taec

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