14 DAY TRIAL // Without a single doubt, hardware manufacturers are taking the question of the future of storage very seriously. To put it differently, nowadays everybody seems to be concerned with developing, manufacturing and releasing SSD storage solutions. And this is precisely why major companies, such as Intel, SanDisk, TDK or Samsung, have already announced and released flash-based storage devices. On that note, it appears that another major manufacturer is planning to roll out its own SSD solution - and it actually aims to do so by the end of this year.
The manufacturer in question is the US-based Kingston, from which we should expect a flash-based storage product sometime in Q3 this year. At a press event held in Bucharest, Romania, one of our colleagues was able to find out a possible release date for Kingston's Solid-State Drives. During a face-to-face talk on the company's financial achievements and product lineup, Mr. Pawel Smigielski, Kingston's Regional Manager for Eastern Europe, stated that we should be seeing the company's SSD products in Q3.
Mr. Pawel refused to comment any further on the subject and didn't give out any details regarding the price tag or even the storage capacities of such products. But the news is important nonetheless as several other manufacturers, including Seagate, have already announced their plans regarding the future of SSDs. This also proves, once more, that 2009 will be a big year for the storage market, since we will be seeing more affordable SSDs rolled out for the large consumer market. Furthermore, the cost of business SSD solutions is expected to drop, as the demand keeps increasing and technology advancements allow for a more cost effective manufacturing process.
As most of you already know, flash-based storage products have certain advantages over the traditional HDDs. But, unfortunately, they can't be considered a reliable alternative to today's current storage standard yet, mainly because of their high price tags and limited write cycles.