SanDisk launches 32-GB SSD hard drive for laptops

SanDisk on Thursday launched a new solid-state 32-gigabyte (GB), 1.8-inch hard drive for notebooks that is entirely based on NAND flash RAM and designed to act as a replacement for mechanical hard disk drives in laptop computers.

The 32GB 1.8" SanDisk SSD UATA 5000 has a durability rating of two million hours mean time between failures. The drive, which the company says is 100 times faster than most laptop hard drives, boasts of having a random read rate of 7,000 inputs/outputs per second (IOPS) for a 512-byte transfer and a sustained read rate of 62 megabytes (MB) per second.

In addition, SanDisk SSD enables laptop PC boot Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise in as little as 35 seconds and access files in a mere 0.12 milliseconds on average, compared with 55 seconds and 19 milliseconds, respectively, for a laptop PC with a hard disk drive.

It draws 50 to 87 percent less power than most notebook hard drives and only 0.4 watt during active operation versus 1.0 watt, which extends the battery life.

The 32-GB solid-state-drive, which according to the Milpitas CA-based SanDisk represents the fifth generation of flash-based solid state drives developed by Msystems, currently targets the enterprise users. However, the company expects to enter into consumer market soon as the cost of NAND flash memory has been declining constantly.

“This is an important milestone for SanDisk in our relentless quest to create new large-scale markets for flash storage solutions for consumers in the personal computing space,” said Eli Harari, SanDisk CEO. “The 32-gigabyte SSD has been made commercially viable through SanDisk’s technology leadership coupled with msystems’ tremendous experience and IP, which are captured in the high-performance, low-cost system controllers that distinguish this product.”

Due to its increased durability, significantly reduced power needs and faster data retrieval, the expensive, large capacity flash-based drives have long been used by the military, aerospace and telecom industries, which require high performance and reliability under challenging environmental conditions.

Harari expects the inclusion of the SanDisk 32GB SSD in a notebook PC could increase the end-user price by around $600 in the first half of 2007.

SanDisk SSD is now available for original equipment manufacturers (OEM). SanDisk, which invented flash storage cards and is the world's largest supplier of the product, will exhibit the solid-state-drive at CES in Las Vegas on January 8 - 11, 2007.