Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced at its annual Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei that it has developed a 1.8"-type 64 Gigabyte (GB) flash-solid state drive (SSD). The new flash-SSD is based on an eight gigabit (Gb) single-level-cell (SLC) NAND, which provides significantly higher performance over conventional SSDs. The read and write performance of the new SLC flash-SSD have been increased by 20 percent and 60 percent respectively over the 32GB flash-SSD Samsung introduced last year, meaning that the new SSD's ability to outperform conventional rotating-media hard drives is even greater than had been anticipated.Samsung's continued nano-technology migration is a key enabling factor in the continued market segmentation for storage media. Besides the use of the 64 GB flash-SSD for notebook PCs, 8~16GB flash-SSDs will become viable solutions for use in personal navigation systems and digital camcorders, as will hundred GB-level flash-SSDs for use in the server market.

The flash-SSD, a drop-in replacement for a hard disk drive, is a secure and reliable means of storing personal or work-related data. It uses instantly-accessible, non-moving NAND flash memory instead of the noisier, power-hungry, jarring-sensitive rotating disc found in conventional hard drives, allowing it to upload and download data quickly and quietly with minimal power consumption.

Samsung plans to start mass production of the 1.8"-type 64GB flash-SSD in the second quarter of this year.