14 DAY TRIAL // Solid state drives have inherent resistance to most things that would spell the doom for hard disk drives, owing to the total lack of moving parts. There is still a scale of endurance, however, and Super Talent has launched an SSD that ranks pretty high on it.
Called DuraDrive AT7, the solid state drive is made for IVI systems, where IVI stands for In-Vehicle Infotainment. That means that vibration and shock protection is a must.
Since solid state drives have no motors or pins inside, which could scratch disks (which, also, aren't present), that means that most concerns are already covered by the simple expedient of using NAND Flash memory technology instead of magnetic platters.
Temperature is a bit more iffy though, so Super Talent made a point of specifying that the SSD can operate at temperatures of -40°C to 85°C / -40°F to 185°F.
The specifications of the DuraDrive AT7
Having gotten the endurance out of the way, that leaves storage capacity and performance. Both of which are above average.
The read and write speeds aren't the best on the market, true. But 500 MB/s reading and 400 MB/s write speeds are still better than for all but the best drives out there.
Capacities, though, are actually better than for most. The top option you get is 1 TB, whereas it's fairly rare to find over 512 GB, barring the recent influx of 960 GB units.
If some of you are wondering what you could possible use 1 TB for inside your car, that's up to you to find an answer for.
We suppose there might be some logic in having an always-available repository of music, films and recorded TV shows, if you happen to possess an in-car TV or something of the sort.
Taking your work with you on a business trip while your driver minds the road could also be a practical application, especially if you do a lot of video editing or graphic design.
Then again, one assumes that a professional workstation laptop would be employed for that, so that takes us back to square one.
Availability and pricing
Super Talent's DuraDrive AT7 solid state drives haven't been given an exact arrival date, nor were their prices specified in the press release or the official product page. That can mean anything from them being set for launch a few days from now, or a few weeks.
Perhaps the company doesn't intend to sell them to anyone other than car makers at first. In any event, we doubt that the price will be that much larger (or lower) than for standard SATA SSDs of 1 TB ($400 / €400 on average).
Below is the press release and an image gallery of the new SSD, as well as some other examples of Super Talent storage technology.
