Samsung has just announced that it has begun mass producing solid state drives featuring a high storage capacity of 256GB, designed specifically for use in notebooks and desktop computer systems. With the addition of the 256GB SSD, the company is now able to provide users with a more extensive lineup of flash-based storage solutions, which includes 8, 16 and 32GB SSDs for lower storage solutions, and 64, 128 and 256GB models for users with higher storage requirements.

 

"While SSDs have always been touted for their performance, Samsung is turning the storage industry upside down now with an SSD that delivers truly disruptive performance," said Jim Elliott, vice president, Memory Marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. "Getting our exceptionally high performing 256GB SSD in a notebook is analogous to having a 15,000rpm drive, without all of its size, noise, power and heating drawbacks."

 

According to Samsung, which, as it happens, is also the current world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, the new 256GB SSD provides double the performance of the previous 64GB and 128GB SSD models, thus augmenting the overall performance of a user's PC. Technical specifications include sequential read speeds of 220MB/s, while the sequential write speeds reach 200MB/s.

 

In regard to the performance specifications of the new SSD, the company has also mentioned that the 256GB solid state drive is capable of storing 25 high-definition movies, each of 10GB in size, in just 21 minutes, a significant increase over a 7200RPM hard disk drive, which is said to perform the same task in roughly 70 minutes. Also, Samsung's 256GB SSD is said to be able to launch applications 10 times quicker than a fast 7200RPM notebook hard disk drive.

 

Additional features include a high degree of energy efficiency, allowing Samsung to claim a drive consumption of 1.1 watts, a feature that is likely to make this latest product a favorite among notebook users, as it will improve their notebook's battery life. In addition to speed, high-capacity storage and energy efficiency, the new Samsung SSD can be shipped with an optional encryption program that delivers full disk encryption.