256GB SSD raises the bar

Samsung has started mass producing 256GB solid state drives, trumping all other high capacity SSDs currently found in the laptop segment of the market.

Samsung, which already supplies 64GB and 128GB SSDs for laptops, reckons its new 256GB drives are not just bigger, but also much faster, offering twice the performance of the firm’s two previous models.

With sequential read rates of 220MB/s and sequential write rates of 200MB/s, the new SSDs also purportedly come with erase cycles of 100GBs a minute, so the whole drive can be rewritten much faster.

According to Samsung, the 256GB SSD also speeds data transfer when big multimedia files are simultaneously read and stored. In practical terms this means 25 high-definition films can be stored in just 21 minutes compared to 70 minutes on a 7200rpm hard disk drive.

Samsung likewise boasts that its 256GB SSD "sharply narrows the performance gap between read and write operations to only 10 per cent, compared to a read-write speed difference of between 20 and 70 percent for other SSDs".

A new single platform design consisting of a chip controller, NAND flash and special, Samsung developed, drive firmware is what gives the diminutive drive its performance. Compared to HDDs, the 256GB SSD is also energy saving, using only 1.1 watts of power compared to two or more watts for a comparable HDD.

Weighing in at 81 grams, the 2.5-inch multi-level cell (MLC) 256GB SSD is only 9.5 millimetres thick, and comes with optional proprietary encryption programming, providing full disk encryption in case any careless government official leaves it on the train or in a pub car park.

Samsung didn’t mention how much the 256GB SSD would cost. µ