Samsung Announces mSATA SSDs for Ultrabooks

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

Samsung is adding mSATA SSDs to its PM830 line, slated for ultrabooks and similar form factors.

Wednesday Samsung said that it entered volume production of new 20-nm PM830 solid state drives (SSDs) that support the Mini-Serial ATA (mSATA) interface. The drives are slated to be used in ultra-slim notebooks like Intel's ultrabook form factor, measuring just 2 x 1.18 x 0.149-inches and weighing a mere 0.282 ounces.

"Samsung's compact mSATA SSDs will provide performance of the highest quality in helping to deliver the advanced ultra-slim PCs that consumers have been wanting," said Myungho Kim, vice president of memory marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung plans to continue providing timely delivery of advanced SSD solutions, while preserving its leadership position in the SSD market for notebook PCs."

According to Samsung, the drives will arrive in 256, 128 and 64 GB densities as main storage devices, and also at 32 GB for caching. Using a SATA 6 Gb/s interface, the drives will offer up to 500 MB/s sequential read speeds and up to 260 MB/s sequential write speeds. They'll also enable faster system boot-ups (in the 10-second range) and will transmit five DVD files "in about a minute."

"In addition, the Samsung mSATA SSDs feature an advanced hardware-based security solution including 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) protection, which will prevent unauthorized access to data on a lost or stolen notebook PC," the company said.

Samsung may be planning to only sell the PM830 drives to OEM partners, so don't expect to see these in Best Buy.

Kevin Parrish
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • chess
    I'm glad other companies beside Intel are coming out with mSata SSDs. We can only hope a little competition drives down the pricing!
    Reply
  • LuckyDucky7
    Samsung may be planning to only sell the PM830 drives to OEM partners, so don't expect to see these in Best Buy.

    Really? The only competitors in this sector currently are Intel (too slow, too costly), OCZ (what more can I say?), and the various other players in small quantities.

    We need more options in this sector of SSDs.
    Reply
  • lp231
    I hope notebook makers will label their slots because that thing looks a lot like mini PCIe
    Reply
  • ojas
    capportsDoesn't look like anything special to me!Spammer? Refer to steam give-away article, saw something like this there too...
    Reply
  • drwho1
    lp231I hope notebook makers will label their slots because that thing looks a lot like mini PCIe
    That's because they can be use on a PCIe slot.
    Reply
  • SSDAmen
    You cannot use an mSATA drive in any old PCI-e slot it would have to be hard wired for a SATA bus and nealy 0 motherboards PCI-e slots are like that.

    I have an x220 and an Asus Tablet and it is a completely different slot that the mSATA goes into.

    I am currently using the MyDigitalSSD mSATA with both machines bought the OCZ Drive did not notice any diff between the 2 so I sold it on eBay. It is hard to tell the diff when you are talking 20 times vs. 30 times faster than a hard drive.

    Here is a good review on that part.

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/599675-mydigitalssd-bullet-proof-128gb-msata-review.html



    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    mSATA, I'm assuming this is what the Macbook Air uses?
    Reply
  • SSDAmen
    No the MBA uses this http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/mx-technology-low-profile-ssd/
    Reply