The solid state drive (SSD) market is looking quite healthy
these days. It seems as though every few weeks we are presented with faster and
cheaper drives that aim to push the technology on a broader audience.
Super
Talent and OCZ
have been working the "value" angle with their respective MX and Core
Series SSDs. Both product lines have read speeds ranging from 120MB/sec to
140MB/sec and write speeds ranging from 60MB/sec to 90MB/sec. OCZ's core lineup
is also relatively "affordable" with prices of $169, $259, and $479
respectively for the 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB models.
Micron is now ratcheting up the performance envelope a
little more with its new multi-level cell (MLC) RealSSD
C200 SSDs. The SSDs will be available in capacities up to 256GB (2.5"
form factor) and 128GB (1.8" form factor). All models will feature a SATA
II interface.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the new SSDs, however,
is their performance. Micron says that the RealSSD C200 SSDs will have read
speeds of a whopping 250MB/sec and write speeds of 100MB/sec.
"With our C200 products, we are providing a balanced
price to performance solution specifically designed for notebook applications
by utilizing MLC NAND technology and highly optimized NAND management
algorithms," said Dean Klein, VP of memory system development at Micron.
Unfortunately, pricing is not yet available for Micron's new
RealSSD C200 SSDs. Micron does, however, state that the drives will reach mass
production during the fourth quarter of 2008.
It appears that companies like Super Talent, OCZ, and Micron
have no problems cranking out SSDs with impressive performance figures at
competitive price points (at least for the former two offerings). SanDisk, on
the other hand, is still having
problems getting its SSD operations into gear.