Did you know you can cook bread with steam?
© 2026 Appliancenews. All Rights Reserved.
Just when you thought 64GB on an SSD memory card was impressive Samsung has revealed a 2.5-inch 256GB card which will allow a user to shoot hours of video on an HD camcorder.
Revealed at the Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei the 2.5-inch, 256 gigabyte (GB), multi-level cell (MLC)-based SSD uses a SATA II interface, and is the world’s fastest SSD, according to the company.
According to the Samsung press release the new SSD card is the thinnest drive with the largest capacity offering a SATA II interface.
Samsung expects to begin production of the 2.5-inch SSD by the end of 2008. According to TechWorld a 1.8-inch version of the 256GB SSD is expected during the fourth quarter of 2008.
Based upon technology found in flash memory chips, SSDs have no moving parts, unlike hard disk drives (HDDs) and their spinning magnetic disks with read-write heads suspended above them. The absence of moving parts makes SSDs generally more reliable and able to offer better performance than HDDs.
“SSDs typically have faster read performance, the endurance can be an advantage because of no moving parts — more power efficient, noiseless, no heat dissipation, etc.,” Unsworth noted.
Samsung’s new SSD has a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second (MB/s) and sequential write speed of 160 MB/s, making it 2.4 times faster than a standard HDD, the company said. It’s also a slim 9.5 millimeters thick. When in active mode, it consumes less than 0.9 watts of power.
SSD technology does not come without a price, however. The major drawback to SSDs is their price per GB, Unsworth told TechNewsWorld.
“You can get 10 times more storage with an HDD than you can with SSD for the same price, and sustained write speeds can also be a consequence depending on application and quality of the SDD, [and] MLC has questions regarding its longevity in certain usage situations, so this could be viewed as a consequence depending on the applications,” he added.
There is certainly room for SSDs to become more cost competitive versus HDDs, Janukowicz told TechNewsWorld.
“Moving to MLC is one of those steps in the process to becoming a more cost competitive solution. That’s why this is important,” he added.
Samsung competitor Intel l will launch a 128 GB SSD in the third quarter, and Toshiba plans to ship a 512 GB SSD by 2009.
