At the CES 2008 show in Las Vegas, flash solid state disk pioneer BiTMICRO Networks announced its plan to launch an 832GB version of the E-Disk Altima SATA flash SSD in 2.5-inch form factor. The drive will utilize the multi-level cell type of NAND flash, which doubles the number of bits stored per memory cell compared to the single-level cell NAND. BiTMICRO will be using its EDSA and LUNETA controllers to optimize the performance of the E-Disk Altima SATA flash SSD; estimates show sustained rates of up to 100MB/s and up to 20,000 I/O operations per second.
The drive offers SATA 3.0 Gbps support and "hot pluggable" capabilities to personal computing and enterprise applications requiring high capacity and high performance yet affordable solid state storage. Sampling for the E-Disk Altima SATA solid state disk is expected to begin in Q2 2008 and will ship in volume by Q3 2008 in capacities ranging from 32GB to 832GB.
"The declining cost of NAND flash memory, coupled with rising SSD densities, is enabling SSD implementation in the personal computing market. More cost-effective SSD solutions based on MLC technology, such as the E-Disk Altima E2A3GM flash SSD from BiTMICRO, are positioned to take advantage of the tremendous unit growth opportunity in the personal computer SSD segment, which is expected to rise by 477% annually from 2006 to 2011," says Jeff Janukowicz, Research Manager for Solid State Drives at IDC.