Samsung Reveals High-performance 64GByte SATA II SSDs for High-end PC and Server Storage Markets

SEOUL, Korea--Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, has become the first in the industry to sample 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch 64Gigabyte (GB) solid state drives (SSD) with a super-fast SATA (Serial ATA) II/native SATA interface. With a sequential write speed of 100Megabyte per second (MBps) and sequential read speed of 120MBps, the SATA II SSD is poised to expand the market for solid state drives from notebook PCs to corporate servers and other high-performance storage applications.

“The 64GB SATA II SSD is based on Samsung’s cutting-edge NAND technology with dramatically improved performance specs that are taking system performance to a whole new level of efficiency,” said Jim Elliott, director, NAND flash marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

Samsung’s SATA II SSD combines a 50 nm-class, single-level-cell (SLC) 8Gb flash chip with a Samsung proprietary, high-speed SATA controller and supporting software.

The new SATA II SSD has a 3.0 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) interface speed which is twice as fast as its SATA I predecessor. Moreover, the SATA II SSD requires only half as much power as the 1.9 watts consumed by hard drives now used in notebook PCs and only one-tenth the power consumed by enterprise-class 15,000rpm hard drives in servers.

Market research firm Web-Feet Research estimates that the NAND flash–based SSD market is expected to show 74 percent compounded annual growth from 2007 through 2012 to reach US$10billion in 2012.

Samsung remains the leader in the production of higher-density solid state drives, developing a 32GB PATA SSD in March 2006, followed by a 64GB version using the SATA I interface in March of this year. The market has been moving rapidly toward SATA, which operates faster than its PATA counterpart, with competition intensifying over the development of new SATA-interface devices.

About Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2006 parent company sales of US$63.4 billion and net income of US$8.5 billion. Employing approximately 138,000 people in 124 offices in 56 countries, the company consists of five main business units: Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business, Telecommunication Network Business and Digital Appliance Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs.

Supplemental Chart – Samsung SSD SATA II

FEATURE COMPARISON (HDD/ PATA/ SATA2)

NAND Flash-based SSD Forecast

(by Web-Feet Research, Oct. 2007)