Toshiba Begins Offering MacBook Air-esque SSD Modules

Posted 11/08/2010 at 7:33pm | by Pulkit Chandna

2

Comments

Print

When Apple recently updated its MacBook Air family of ultraportables, it switched the range entirely to solid-state storage for the speed boost flash memory provides. But it went against the grain by opting for an onboard storage solution, as opposed to the conventional way of wedging it all into an SSD enclosure. This was done in order to make the Air even more ethereal than before.

A teardown of the new Air later revealed that the onboard storage solution comprises flash memory chips and a solid state drive controller from Toshiba. But the “innovative new form factor in high capacity, high performance solid-state storage” will no longer be restricted to the Air as Toshiba has now begun offering a comparable solution, the Blade X-gale series of SSDs.

In fact, the Blade X-gale ultra-thin SSD modules are reportedly same as the ones inside Apple’s ultraportable notebook. According to MacRumors, not only do both come in identical capacities (64GB, 128GB, and 256GB), but also have the same part numbers. The Blade X-gale drives are capable of a maximum sequential read speed of 220MB/s and a maximum sequential write speed of 180MB/s.

"Delivering a product that enables superior user experience in a smaller footprint is the ultimate goal," noted Scott Nelson, vice president, Memory Business Unit, Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. "The density of MLC NAND enables the creation of smaller form factor high density storage solutions, and Toshiba, as the technology leader for NAND storage solutions, will continue to innovate in this space."