Samsung Develops Solid State Drive with SATA Mini-card Design for Blazing-fast Netbooks

(Auszug aus der Pressemitteilung)

SEOUL, KOREA, June 23, 2009 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world

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leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it is now
sampling a SATA-interface mini-card solid state drive (SSD) with some of
its customers, for use in the expanding netbook marketplace. The Samsung
SATA mini-card SSD expands the use of SSDs from not only being a primary
storage medium, but also as a complementary drive to boost the performance
of PCs with dual drive capabilities.

Samsung’s new mini-card form factor, with a highly robust interface, makes
an already rugged SSD even less susceptible to damage from jarring,
jostling and dropping.

“The market is beginning to take advantage of smaller SSDs for the growing
netbook sector,” said Richard Walsh, associate Director, memory marketing,
Samsung Semiconductor Europe. “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.

Featuring a mini-PCI Express (PCIe) form factor with a SATA 3.0Gb/s
interface, the highly cost-efficient mini-card SSD is nearly 80 percent
smaller than the conventional 2.5-inch hard disk drive, making it ideal for
the tighter constraints of most netbooks. In addition, it can be used in
printers and various handheld terminals including ruggedized mobile devices.

Moreover, the SATA mini-card SSD form factor can be used in a combination
comprised of the SSD as main memory and HDD as supporting storage space.
This new approach is expected to increase the adoption of SSDs in a broader
range of applications.

Samsung is working to standardize the new mechanical form factor and its
pin layout specifications at JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering
Council). With possible revisions by OEM manufacturers, standardization
could be expected as early as the third quarter of this year.

Available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB densities, the new SSD drive will be
produced using 40-nanometer-class process technology. The SATA mini-card
SSD provides strong performance levels with a sequential read rate of
200MB/s (megabytes per second) and writes data sequentially at 100MB/s.

Samsung’s mini-card SSD is only 30 millimeters (mm) wide and 51mm high. The
drive weighs up to 8.5g and measures up to 3.75 millimeters thick. Also
offering a high degree of energy efficiency, the new drive consumes 0.3
watts of power.

Samsung’s new netbook-targeted SSD is available with optional full disk
encryption to thwart theft or any unwanted access to a netbook or other
device.

Reference Chart

SATA mini-card SSD

Size: Mini PCIe
Channel: 8CH
Weight: 7.5~8.5g
NAND type/Performance: 16Gb MLC NAND / R:200MB/s, W: 100MB/s
Average Power: 0.3W
Acoustic Noise: None
Endurance: MTBF 1 mil hour

256GB SSD

Size: 2.5″/ 1.8″
Channel: 8CH
Weight: 81g
NAND type/Performance: 16Gb MLC NAND / R: 220MB/s, W: 180MB/s
Average Power: 1.1W [Normal]
Acoustic Noise: None
Endurance: MTBF 1 mil hour