Toshiba today
announced a 2.5" 512GB SSD that's supposedly the first of its kind. Samples
of the drive will start to roll out next quarter, and Toshiba will begin mass
production in the second quarter of 2009. This creatively named THNS512GG8BB SSD
is based on 43nm multi-level cell NAND flash memory, and Toshiba gives it speed
ratings of 240MB/s for sequential writes and 200MB/s for sequential reads. The
drive connects via a standard 300MB/s Serial ATA interface, has AES encryption
support, and weighs in at only 66 grams (just over two ounces). Toshiba has also
announced lower-capacity models with the same perks and production schedule. The
firm is prepping 256GB, 128GB, and 64GB derivatives that'll be available with
2.5", regular 1.8", or bare 1.8" form factors (see the picture above). According
to
this page, all of these offerings have the same performance ratings as the
top-of-the-line 512GB model.