Buffalo Creates New SATA 6.0 Gbps SSD

The past week has definitely seen its share of new storage solutions, especially of the external variety, but it appears that things are hardly over on this front, with Buffalo making its move as well.

External storage solutions have definitely been getting bought lately, although this is hardly surprising considering the storage capacities they can sport now.

In this instance, the segment of USB flash drives, hard disk drives, solid state drives and optical drives is not the one that will welcome the Buffalo SSD-N256S/MC400, as this is not a mobile unit but one intended to lie inside laptops or desktops.

Then again, it would be more appropriate to say that the segment will soon see its arrival, since it will only be up for order in a few days.

On the flip side, this is sooner than the USB 3.0 Blu-ray burner and HDD that I-O Data has prepared, which will take until as late as next month to show.

The new portable solid state drive that Buffalo created has a capacity of 256 GB, which isn't at all bad for NAND Flash-based units.

Additionally, the SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, the latest iteration of the SATA standard, lets it work at its fullest, leading to read and write speeds of 405 MB/s and 223 MB/s, respectively.

It is constructed out of MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips and has full support for TRIM and NCQ. Additionally, 256 MB of DRAM cache contribute to its overall capabilities.

Finally, Buffalo included a 3.5-inch bracket in the package, so that even regular drive bays may hold the SSD.

At first, the newcomer will only be available in Japan, where its price will be of 72,200 yen, the rough equivalent of $880. It will serve well those users that value speed over capacity.