Micron Enters Safeguard Mode with Self-Encrypting SSD

With OCZ focusing on versatility and combinations between storage technologies, Micron chose to explore some of the possibilities in the area of data security, eventually making a special sort of secure solid state drive.

The solid state drive market is in no way something that can be easily ignored by the consumer base, even if many of the people around the world can't afford one of these storage units.

After all, with transfer speeds that put hard drives to shame, and a steadily narrowing capacity gap (though this is debatable), this was bound to happen.

Then again, SSDs are becoming just as prominent, if not more, on the enterprise front, where their high transfers make them ideal for systems where fast data access is paramount.

Micron Technology just announced an SSD series for this very field, part of its RealSSD collection, much like the RealSSD P400 before it.

Dubbed RealSSD C400 SED, the new line is made up of solid state drives with a special ability, that of encrypting the data stored on them automatically.

Indeed, the newcomers can rightfully be named self-encrypting, thanks to their hardware-based, automatic AES 256-bit encryption engine.

For those that want the exact specs, the SSDs are made of 25nm MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips and operate at 500 MB/s read and 260 MB/s write speeds, thanks to the SATA 6.0 Gbps interface.

They are in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors and comply with the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) Opal specifications.

Capacities are 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB, respectively. Unfortunately, prices were not mentioned.

"The C400 SED will help users and IT teams alike to sleep better at night. We've leveraged our popular client SSD and partnered with the leading encryption management vendor to create a product that provides a solid defense against data theft," said Justin Sykes, Micron's general manager of client SSD solutions.

"With security breaches increasing for every type of user, this solution scales without sacrificing high performance or reliability."