Toshiba Discusses New SSD and USB 3 Offerings – CES and Storage Visions 2012 Update

Did you ever wonder where the term ‘flash’ in NAND flash memory originated?

The answer it seems is directly tied into Toshiba, a company who’s name is synonymous with NAND flash memory as they have a very long history in flash memory, developing it since the 1980’s.

As funny as it may seem, a Toshiba engineer is actually credited with naming Flash memory when he commented that this new element erased in a ‘flash’ while observing it through his microscope.

In flash memory, a whole block of memory cells can be erased in a single action and this week we met up with Toshiba to discuss our teaming up for evaluations of their current and ‘as of yet’ unannounced products which we may see.  Expanding on this rich history with NAND and Flash memory, Toshiba is looking to the future to continue its cutting edge development of this segment.

First we took a look at their Enterprise offerings, the MK4001GRZB, and observed the large super-capacitors on the back of the PCB. This allows for power to be maintained to the device long enough to record any data during a power loss. This is a key aspect of high-end Enterprise class drives. These devices utilize 32nm SLC and Marvell controllers.

The consumer SSDs were also on display, and these are available in a 7mm format as well. This is crucial with the exploding Ultrabook and Mobile market coming to fruition.

Also important to this segment is the MSATA device to the left. This is an important form factor as mobile markets continue to progress. Toshiba has this device available with capacities of 32 and 64 GB, with larger capacities coming soon.

And finally, Toshiba has announced a new line of USB 3.0 flash memory drives.  Twenty times faster than their previous generation with read/write weighing in at 220MB/s and 94MB/s respectively, these are blistering fast! Quite amazing that this speed is wrapped in an ultra low power requirement of 300 mA, this device will be very handy for the portable segment as well!

Look for another great year from Toshiba as they continue to develop new products and expand on their long history in the industry!