TDK Corp developed the "SDG2A" series, a line of Serial ATA II-compatible SDD (solid state drives) with a maximum memory capacity of 64 Gbytes.
The new SSDs have the same size as that of a 2.5-inch HDD. But the company plans to release smaller versions such as 1- and 1.8-inch models. The SDG2A series is designed for low-end laptops called "netbooks," Blu-ray Disc recorders (for storage of EPG data, etc in the system), personal navigation devices (PND), multifunction printers and other consumer electronics.
The products come in two types, one with an SLC (single level cell) NAND flash memory and the other with an MLC (multi level cell) NAND flash memory. The maximum memory capacity of the SLC model is 32 Gbytes, while that of the MLC model is 64 Gbytes. Both of the SLC and MLC models are manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and use a memory chip produced by 50nm node semiconductor technology.
As the control IC of the NAND flash memory, the SSDs use the "GBDriver RS2" series, which TDK announced in April 2009. The data transfer speeds for reading and writing are 95MBps and 55MBps, respectively. The SSDs support either the 8- or 15-bit ECC for error correction, depending on the NAND flash memory used.
The GBDriver RS2 is equipped with a "static wear leveling function," which averages the number of rewrites over the entire memory area. Because the function periodically evens out the number of rewrites in the fixed blocks such as OS and FAT areas as well, the GBDriver RS2 maximizes the life of the flash memory used, TDK said.
Moreover, the GBDriver RS2 offers a function to obtain information on the number of rewrites in all memory blocks as SMART (self-monitoring & analysis reporting technology) information.
The new SSDs have a data protection function against power interruption. If power is interrupted when data is being written, a power interruption tolerance algorithm incorporated in the control IC prevents errors such as the corruption of stored data other than that being written. Furthermore, because the SSDs feature a power supply protection circuit, data can be written for about several milliseconds even when power is interrupted, TDK said.
TDK is planning to exhibit the new SSDs at the 12th Embedded Systems Expo (ESEC), which runs from May 13 to 15, 2009, at Tokyo Big Sight.
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