Virtium Introduces M.2 SSDs

Virtium has announced a new series of SSDs – the StorFly M.2 Sata 6G SSDs. These SSDs are units based on the M.2 form factor driven by a SATA3 (6 Gb/s) controller. As such, they won't feature the full 10 Gb/s bandwidth that most M.2 SSDs will support, though they will be widely compatible and likely will come with a more attractive price point. They are still industrial-grade devices, though, so keep in mind that they are built to be more reliable.

The units will come in capacities ranging from 8 GB to 256 GB with SLC flash, while the MLC versions will come in capacities up to 480 GB. They will also come in 42 mm, 60 mm, 80 mm, and 110 mm lengths, allowing users to choose a larger unit to fit in their desktop, or a smaller unit for the laptop that doesn't fit anything larger than a 42 mm unit. Both the SLC and MLC units will read at about 500 MB/s. The SLC version will be able to write up to 400 MB/s, while the MLC units will write at a slightly slower speed of up to 330 MB/s.

"For next-generation smaller embedded systems designs, Virtium's M.2 SSDs are offered in a broad range of capacities and support higher performance. Virtium also extends its four-year longevity guarantee with our SLC-based StorFly M.2 products greatly minimizing costly and disruptive requalifications," said Scott Phillips, director of SSD product marketing at Virtium. "Virtium's extensive SSD design expertise allows us to easily implement SATA on multiple industry standard form factors, including 2.5, 1.8-inch SSDs, M.2, mSATA, Slim SATA and CFast."

No word on availability or pricing yet, though the 42 mm and 80 mm units will be the first to come to market.

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Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.