Toshiba Intros THNSNF Series SSDs with 19nm NAND

Toshiba introduced on Monday an upcoming line of SSDs claiming to be the "world's first" to take advantage of 19-nm process NAND flash memory, the THNSNF series. Even more, the series will use Toggle MLC NAND flash which should provide faster performance than competing SSDs using synchronous or asynchronous NAND Flash.

"Our customers are increasingly looking to SSDs as a storage solution across multiple products and markets because of the performance and reliability they deliver," said Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing at Toshiba’s Storage Products Business Unit. "The THNSNF series provides not only great performance, but also extremely low power consumption across a broad range of form factors and capacities."

Clocking in at around twice the speed of Toshiba’s HG3 series SSDs, the THNSNF series will deliver efficient power utilization of less than 0.1 W, exceeding the Business Applications Performance Corporation MobileMark 2007 benchmark for battery life. Consumers will also have peace of mind knowing the key components -- from firmware to NAND to controllers -- are designed by Toshiba instead of imported from 3rd party suppliers.

On a technical level, the SDDS will have a max sequential read speed of up to 524 MB/s and a max sequential write speed of up to 461 MB/s. They'll also have a random 4KiB IOPS sustained read of 80k (save for 64 GB version which will be 50k), and a random 4KiB IOPS sustained write of 35K (save for the 64 GB version which will be 25K). They'll connect via a SATA 3 interface and have a MTTF of 1.5M hours.

Toshiba said the new THNSNF series will go into mass production in August 2012, and include data protection through use of Quadruple Swing-By Code (QSBCT), Toshiba’s error correction code technology. Four capacities will be offered -- 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB -- and the three following form factors:

THNSNFxxxGBSS -- 9.5 mm height, SATA 6 Gb/s
THNSNFxxxGCSS -- 7.0-mm height, SATA 6 Gb/s
THNSNFxxxGMCS -- mSATAT, SATA 6 Gb/s

  • Wait, wait, what? "They'll connect via a SATA 3", then later down the article, you mention they are SATA 6. Which is it??? Also, performance specs don't sound any better than normal high performance SSDs. What gives? With 19nm, they only go up to 512GB? When is someone going to deliver a TB?
    Reply
  • SATA 3 interface runs at a nominal maximum of 6gb/s
    Reply
  • victorious 3930k
    InterestedPartnerWait, wait, what? "They'll connect via a SATA 3", then later down the article, you mention they are SATA 6. Which is it??? Also, performance specs don't sound any better than normal high performance SSDs. What gives? With 19nm, they only go up to 512GB? When is someone going to deliver a TB?Sata 3 = Sata 6.0Gb/s
    Reply
  • memadmax
    I'll try out the 256gb one, only if it is within reasonable price.
    Reply
  • Chainzsaw
    I was reading about how the smaller the flash cells degrade quicker than the larger ones. Have they solved this issue with these SSD's?
    Reply
  • RealBeast
    ChainzsawI was reading about how the smaller the flash cells degrade quicker than the larger ones. Have they solved this issue with these SSD's?That's the real question for me since IIRC the 34nm to 25nm shrink dropped write cycles from 5000 to 3000.
    Reply
  • oj88
    August is only 2 months away, why keeping the secret on the suggested retail price? Which must be too expensive to reveal. Any unit price > $1/GB won't interest me. Crucial 256GB M4 is priced only $200 now.
    Reply
  • alidan
    RealbeastThat's the real question for me since IIRC the 34nm to 25nm shrink dropped write cycles from 5000 to 3000.something like that, but you have to remember, to reach end life of a 120tb drive, you have to over write the dats on it 3000 times, meaning that you would have to write 360tb of data to that drive...

    and so long as you aren't using that drive as cashe for a cashe intensive operation, that drive, barring any other failure, will last you till the life of the computer.

    what i want to know more than that is how much area a memory chip (the waffer, not the black caseing) takes up so i can get a somewhat accurate base cost of the tech. i want to know if they are screwing us or not and i need that infor to find out.
    Reply
  • ojas
    InterestedPartnerWait, wait, what? "They'll connect via a SATA 3", then later down the article, you mention they are SATA 6. Which is it??? Also, performance specs don't sound any better than normal high performance SSDs. What gives? With 19nm, they only go up to 512GB? When is someone going to deliver a TB?Epic fail is epic.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    InterestedPartner With 19nm, they only go up to 512GB? When is someone going to deliver a TB?
    Well 1 TB ssd, the price will be 1200$ Are you willing to pay that? Most propably not and the 1200$ is very low estimation... It would most propably cost much, much more... We are not below 1$/Gb with new highend SSDs yet. There are older models that are in sale below that treshold, but still most SSDs are much higher...
    So 512GB version at 650 dollars is something that someone with very deep pocket can go. Most of us are still in 120GB to 256GB treshold...
    Reply