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Hardware Mtron Unveils 128GB, 1.8" PATA SSD
Brandon Hill (Blog) - February 18, 2008 3:19 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 26 comment(s) - last by winterspan.. on Feb 19 at 6:42 AM
Mtron cranks out high-capacity 1.8" SSD

While companies like BiTMICRO like to dance in the high-end with exotic 416GB, 832GB and 1.6TB solid-state drives (SSDs), Mtron is looking towards advances for mere mortals.

Mtron announced the completed development of its single-level cell (SLC) 1.8" SSD which provides maximum read speeds of 120MB/sec and maximum writes of 100MB/sec. Mtron says that these speeds are over six times faster than traditional 1.8" HDDs.

In addition, Mtron also has a new multi-level cell (MLC) 1.8" SSD which delivers read speeds of 110MB/sec and writes of 40MB/sec. Both drives use a PATA interface.

"With our new 1.8 Inch SSD, Mtron has added another great product line as a leader in SSD market, which is expected to grow into ten billion dollars in 2012," said Mtron CEO Steve Joen. "Our new product is a result of careful market analysis and research for consumer needs, and we will launch our new product in April so that we can satisfy their need for high performance SSD products."

Mtron's latest drives would find a perfect home in the chassis' of Apple's new MacBook Air which uses a 1.8", PATA SSD manufactured by Samsung.

Mtron states that the new SLC SSD will begin production in April 2008. Pricing has not been announced for either SSD, but expect to pay a hefty premium for the faster SLC SSDs over the write speed-challenged MLC SSDs.

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Uhhh... whu..?
By Enoch2001 on 2/18/2008 3:36:59 PM , Rating: 5
PATA is so last century. Why not a SATA interface?




RE: Uhhh... whu..?
By Kougar on 2/18/2008 3:47:04 PM , Rating: 2
It is due to the small form factor. According to the Anandtech Macbook Air review, these 1.8" drives can only accept PATA due to the unique SFF PATA type plug they have.

So in other words, as the article already said this drive would be perfect for a Macbook Air user.


RE: Uhhh... whu..?
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 2/18/2008 3:54:31 PM , Rating: 3
The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 uses a 1.8" SATA SSD ;)

Score one more for the X300

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=57395


RE: Uhhh... whu..?
By daftrok on 2/18/08, Rating: 0
RE: Uhhh... whu..?
By DeepBlue1975 on 2/18/2008 5:10:19 PM , Rating: 2
100% agreed.
In these days, PATA stands for Pathetically Anachronic Transference Annoyance.

There's no excuse for using pata instead of SATA: even if the drive's performance doesn't justify SATA, the better and easier to route wires do.


RE: Uhhh... whu..?
By TSS on 2/18/2008 7:27:32 PM , Rating: 2
the only laptops i've ever got to screw open with PATA HDD's didn't have any wires at all, atleast between the HDD and the motherboard. it always was a plug that slotted right into some pins. exactly the same with SATA, only the plug looked different.

i'd doubt people are starting to equip anything they have to route their cables through with 1,8" HDD's instead of 3,5".

pata does the trick fine as long as it stays below 133 mb/s. and it does.


RE: Uhhh... whu..?
By ocyl on 2/18/2008 8:00:20 PM , Rating: 1
I still prefer PATA personally due to its higher reliability.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=31...


RE: Uhhh... whu..?
By elpresidente2075 on 2/18/2008 6:09:36 PM , Rating: 2
Because most notebooks currently deployed around the world use the PATA interface. Also, the PATA interface uses less energy (yeah, weird, I know) than the more modern SATA. This translates into more battery life, as well as a larger market than with a SATA native interface.

On that last point, you can be assured that these drives will get the SATA treatment eventually, as the install base grows throughout the world.


RE: Uhhh... whu..?
By Slaimus on 2/18/2008 6:27:18 PM , Rating: 2
It is because PATA and Flash are electrically almost the same protocol, so most PATA controllers can also control flash chips.

On the other hand, for SATA to work, there will need to be a bridge chip.


swap file
By AlvinCool on 2/18/2008 3:49:02 PM , Rating: 2
Ok I can feel the flames already, but why not a standard fast SATA II drive with 4 gig of fast solid state memory specifically for the swap file? It would look like a standard C: drive but windows would detect the imbedded memory and use it for the swap file.

Wouldn't this speed up windows systems enormously?




RE: swap file
By PAPutzback on 2/18/2008 4:12:30 PM , Rating: 1
Page files are so 2005ish. Who runs a page file anymore on their 4gig+ ram system.


RE: swap file
By AlvinCool on 2/18/2008 4:32:00 PM , Rating: 2
If I try to not run a page file my system crashes. I have 4 gig of memory. So everyone else can run with no page file?


RE: swap file
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 2/18/2008 4:34:51 PM , Rating: 2
I run my Eee PC with 2GB of RAM and no swapfile in Windows XP. I've never run into any issues.


RE: swap file
By AlphaVirus on 2/18/2008 5:01:23 PM , Rating: 2
What is Vista Home Premium set to by default? And with 2GB of ram, desktop pc, is it recommended to keep it on or off?

I turned it off with my older XP system but never bothered with the Vista.


SSD = nothing but a ##$! tease
By shabby on 2/18/2008 4:07:04 PM , Rating: 2
Anyone else getting sick of ssd? Theres an article every week about some new advancement which gives faster speeds, higher capacities... yet no one can afford it. Wheres the technological advancement that lowers the price significantly?




RE: SSD = nothing but a ##$! tease
By Digobick on 2/18/2008 4:34:41 PM , Rating: 2
They're coming. Be patient.


By martinrichards23 on 2/19/2008 6:15:31 AM , Rating: 2
I'm not! I'm like hearing the details of new SSDs, particularly as they seem to be evolving at such an extreme rate, something the storage industry isn't used to.


go figure
By Oroka on 2/18/2008 4:17:08 PM , Rating: 4
YAY! Another awesome SSD that I cant afford. Maybe if I sell my car, I can get a pair of these for RAID.




RE: go figure
By cscpianoman on 2/18/2008 4:58:45 PM , Rating: 2
Your car is so last century, they want your house, first-born and a couple limbs:)


.
By PLaYaHaTeD on 2/18/2008 3:57:54 PM , Rating: 2
Something tells me I should buy some Mtron stock.




RE: .
By Oroka on 2/18/2008 4:07:14 PM , Rating: 2
no, figure out what big HDD maker will buy them, then invest there.


40MB/s writes...
By Doormat on 2/18/2008 4:53:50 PM , Rating: 2
I suppose 40MB/s write speeds isnt that bad - thats probably about the speeds of the current 1.8" disk in the unit. The 100MB/s read speeds will be great. I still worry about the 10,000 cycle write limit with the MLC drives.




RE: 40MB/s writes...
By AnnihilatorX on 2/18/2008 9:31:21 PM , Rating: 2
I think Mtron quotes it's drive reliability to last 10 years on the basis that the drive is rewritten itself 3 times a day for a 16GB drive, i.e. 48GB writes/day.


What we need...