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Gadgets CES 2012: Toshiba's New USB 3.0 USB Flash Memory is 22x Faster than Previous Gen
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - January 9, 2012 12:16 PM

13 comment(s) - last by Cypherdude1.. on Jan 11 at 4:41 AM

Flash drives will come in 32GB and 64GB

NAND flash memory is used today in everything from portable USB sticks to smartphones to SSDs and various other consumer gadgets. Toshiba is on hand at CES 2012 and is showing off a new line of memory that has a transfer rate many times higher than its previous USB 3.0 flash memory products.

The memory is being shown off in the TransMemory-EX series of flash products, which will initially be available in 32GB and 64GB versions. Inside the drive is Toshiba DDR NAND with data transfer rates up to 220 MB/s read and 94MB/s write. That gives the 22x faster read and 18x faster write than the older generation Toshiba flash drives.

"Today's consumers have a need for speed, and they want a truly interactive experience," noted Brian Kumagai, senior business development manager, NAND flash memory products for TAEC. "Devices and peripherals are becoming faster and faster, and the USB transfer speed needs to increase in order to keep up. Eventually, all motherboards and laptops will be designed with USB 3.0 ports, allowing for consumers to take advantage of the increased speed and improved performance it offers."

The new offerings have some of the lowest power consumption in the industry and the new flash drives are ReadyBoost capable for Windows machines.

Source: Toshiba

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ReadyBoost?!?

By letmepicyou on 1/9/2012 1:17:21 PM , Rating: 2

Does this mean I'll FINALLY see a performance gain from using ReadyBoost?!?

WOO HOO!!!

RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By Brandon Hill

(blog) on 1/9/2012 1:20:43 PM , Rating: 2

LOL, wasn't that a big feature with Windows Vista? I remember sticking in a few USB thumb drives into my Vista machine back in the day and it telling me that it was too slow for ReadyBoost :)

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By Omega215D on 1/9/2012 1:28:32 PM , Rating: 2

Then again ReadyBoost is also in Windows 7... but I see little to know improvement when using it as I already have 8GB of RAM.

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By ipay on 1/9/2012 2:05:55 PM , Rating: 2

No know now

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By ekv on 1/9/2012 2:25:15 PM , Rating: 4

who gnu?

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By Cypherdude1 on 1/11/2012 4:41:26 AM , Rating: 2

You can already buy fast Corsair USB 3.0 64 GB sticks for $120. They were on sale for about $95 during the holiday:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LDG406

Their speed is nearly the same as these Toshibas the difference being you can buy them now:
Max Sequential Read Speed (USB 3.0) = 135 MB/s
Max Sequential Write Speed (USB 3.0) = 83 MB/s

I doubt you would notice the difference between the Toshibas and the Corsairs, except perhaps Toshiba's price. If you already have 6GB or more of RAM, even with ReadyBoost, the only time it would make a difference is when you initially load an app or other data. After that, Win7 places whatever you load into its cache. If you have an SSD, Win7 won't use ReadyBoost at all because a SATA3 SSD would be faster. With the prices of Corsair performance $190 120 GB SSD's coming down, it would probably be better just to go with SSD:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057QETGS

Unfortunately, the problem is most mobos produced before Jan 2011 do not have native chipset SATA3 controllers. Many have those lousy Marvell PCIe x1 5 GT/s. That is NOT a typo. It's GT/s or transfers per second:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci_express
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigatransfer

Believe it or not, Marvell actually puts "5 GB/s" on its POST notice for EVERY PC it's on. I wonder if they ever caught on to their mistake. I doubt it. LOL. Even worse, Marvell has the WORST end-user firmware update support: basically NOTHING. If you want to optimize your onboard Marvell controller or stop BSOD's, you have to take a chance and go to a French site (the drivers and firmware are mostly in English):
http://www.station-drivers.com/page/marvell.htm
Has anyone updated their onboard Marvell 88SE9123 controller firmware for their Asus P7P55D-E Pro mobo? I'd be interested to know your results. I did a few searches but I couldn't find any info.

A PCIe v2.x x1-based controller has a max transfer rate of 500 MB/s whereas a native SATA3 controller has a max transfer rate of 600 MB/s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA3#SATA_revision_3...

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By Omega215D on 1/10/2012 7:09:31 AM , Rating: 2

yeah, not sure how that happened.

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By bug77 on 1/9/2012 2:45:23 PM , Rating: 2

ReadyBoost is a disk cache, it has nothing to do with the amount of installed RAM. Unless Windows can use extra RAM to cache disk contents.

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By DarthPierce on 1/9/2012 5:12:29 PM , Rating: 2

actually windows does use extra ram to cache disk contents.

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By tastyratz on 1/9/2012 2:23:50 PM , Rating: 2

readyboost sucked in vista, but in windows 7 it shows relative promise. If you have a TON of ram it makes far less difference, but it gives the system an alternative page point. The idea is sound if you don't have a ssd.I have 8gb ram and feel the performance change, while minor, is worth the low cost of entry on my laptop.

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RE: ReadyBoost?!?

By Omega215D on 1/10/2012 7:13:40 AM , Rating: 2

I'm still kicking myself for going with 8GB ($40) instead of 16GB ($85) when refreshing my system's CPU, mobo and RAM. I also have a memory stick in use as ReadyBoost as well only because it was sitting idle on my desk for the longest time.

Normal USB sticks are quite slow compared to actual RAM but are faster than using the HDD. Maybe this one will have some noticeable improvements but not holding my breath.

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Good old days

By Paj on 1/10/2012 7:25:32 AM , Rating: 2

I remember, not too long ago actually, when the idea of a 1GB flashdrive blew me away. I also remember buying a 64 MB one about 8 years ago, at just under a dollar a megabyte.