14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung Electronics, one of the world's leaders in advanced semiconductor technology, has just announced the expansion of its solid state drive (SSD) lineup with the introduction of an SATA-interface mini-card SSD, which the company is currently sampling to customers for use in the expanding netbook segment. According to Samsung, the new solution is designed to improve performance and storage for the fast growing netbook segment, providing users with a more energy-efficient and higher-performance alternative to traditional 2.5-inch hard drives.
“The market is beginning to embrace a smaller SSD for the nascent netbook sector,” Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc., said. “The cost-efficiency and reliability of lower-density, highly compact Samsung SSDs are perfectly suited as the storage medium for the rapidly growing netbook marketplace,” he added.
The new Samsung mini-PCI Express (PCIe) SSDs have been featured with an SATA 3,0Gb/s interface and are said to be more cost-efficient and 80 percent smaller than conventional 2.5-inch hard drives. These design features make them an ideal choice for use in small netbook computer systems, even enabling system vendors to design smaller, thinner netbook laptops. In addition, according to Samsung, the new mini-PCIe SSDs can be provided as a solution for printers and various handheld terminals or ruggedized mobile devices.
The new drives are available in capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, and are designed using Samsung's latest 40nm manufacturing technology. As far as performance goes, the SATA mini-card SSDs are claimed to be capable of delivering sequential read speeds of 200MB/s, while write speeds are rated at 100MB/s. Weighing in at just 8.5g and measuring just 3.75mm in thickness, the new drives also deliver a high level of energy efficiency, consuming just 0.3 watts of power, according to Samsung.
Despite no details on pricing, Samsung electronics has announced that the new netbook-targeted SSDs will be made available with optional full-disk encryption.