Samsung intros 64GB solid state drive

Electronics firm Samsung has begun the mass production of 1.8in 64GB solid state drives (SSDs). 

"We see sharply increasing interest in SSDs among OEMs worldwide amid a growing push to launch premium SSD-based notebooks, particularly in the ultra-mobile category," said Jim Elliott, director of Flash marketing at Samsung.

SSDs offer greater reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives. Such devices can also improve battery life by up to 20 per cent in notebooks because of the lack of a motor and other moving parts.

Samsung's 64GB SSD consists of 64Gb single-level cell Flash memory chips. Use of 51nm process technology permits fabrication of much smaller components, each chip having circuitry 1/2500th the width of a human hair.

The company has already introduced 32GB SSDs into ultra-mobile personal computers, and its SSDs also are being considered for server applications such as in advertising and for web search engines.

Other digital consumer products such as camcorders, PDAs and printers can now be equipped with SSDs ranging from 4GB to 64GB.

Samsung predicts that sales of SSD units will increase by 270 per cent between now and 2010 to become the largest growth segment in the Nand Flash industry.

The company believes that rapid expansion of the 1.8in SSD market will spark demand for even smaller SSD formats for mobile consumer electronics.

Samsung said that 2.5in and 3.5in SSDs will also gain a great deal of momentum over the next three years for widespread use in standard notebooks and desktop PCs.