14 DAY TRIAL // MLC (multi-level cell) and SLC (single-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips are the most common types used in solid state drives, but Plextor wanted to stand out a bit more than usual, so it is using TLC instead. Plextor has reportedly prepared a line of solid state drives called M8S and aimed at customers that place equal emphasis on performance, reliability and affordability.
For those that have not already guessed, TLC stands for triple-level cell NAND Flash ships, or 3 bits per cell.
The company itself hasn't actually launched the items, and hasn't commented on the rumors of their approach either.
CeBIT 2013 is just around the corner though, set to take place between March 05 and March 09. If a press release is to be sent out at any time, it is then.
That said, the Plextor M8S TLC NAND flash-based 2.5-inch solid-state drives will have capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB.
The transfer speeds will go as high as 540 MB/s when reading, which is not too shabby at all, while the write speed can achieve 465 MB/s.
On that note, the random IOPS (input/output operations per second) will be of 80,000 when reading and 72,000 when writing.
The reason for the performance is the TrueSpeed technology, which preserves performance throughout the lifetime of an SSD, and makes sure that performance is very high out-of-the-box, according to X-bit Labs.
Currently, it is assumed that sales of the TLC-based Plextor M8S will start in the second half of the year. Since they are supposed to be mid-range devices, they are, thus, bound to have prices lower than those of most 2.5-inch SSDs, especially SandForce-based ones, but higher than for low-end SSDs.
The next week may or may not bring additional details on the matter. We'll just have to wait for the show in Hannover, Germany.