Micron claims its recently-created RealSSD C300 is the industry’s fastest for notebook and desktop PCs, delivering faster operating system boot and hibernate times, speedier application loads, and quicker data transfer and file copying. Micron says benchmark tests have shown that the C300 SSD is the fastest PC SSD leveraging the industry standard SATA 3Gbps interface, while the Solid State Drive (SSD) performance is further boosted by natively supporting the next generation high-speed interface – SATA 6Gbps.
“The C300 SSD not only delivers on all the inherent advantages of SSDs – improved reliability and lower power use – but also leverages a finely tuned architecture and high-speed ONFI 2.1 NAND to provide a whole new level of performance,” said Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron.
What does SATA 6Gbps mean?
Micron explains that native support of SATA 6Gbps means that the data path between the host computer and the SSD is twice as fast as the previous SATA 3Gbps interface. Micron’s core design and higher speed interface means there’s no trade-off between throughput-sensitive and IOPS (Input/Output Per Second)-sensitive data streams.
Using the SATA 6Gbps interface the C300 SSD is able to achieve a read throughput speed of up to 355MBps and a write throughput speed of up to 215Mbps, says Micron. Using the common PC Mark Vantage scoring system, the C300 SSD scored 45,000 from the HDD Suite.
“Hard drives gain little performance advantage when using SATA 6Gbps because of mechanical limitations,” said Klein. “As a developer of leading-edge NAND technology, along with our sophisticated controller and firmware innovations, Micron is well positioned to tune our drives to take full advantage of the faster speeds achieved using the SATA 6Gbps interface. The combination of these technology advancements has enabled the RealSSD C300 drive to far outshine the competition.”
The RealSSD C300 drive uses Micron’s 34nm MLC NAND flash memory, allowing the company to provide a cost-competitive, high-capacity SSD solution. Bringing another first to SSDs, Micron’s 34nm MLC NAND supports the high-speed ONFI 2.1 standard, ensuring the NAND performance keeps pace with the faster SATA 6Gbps interface.
The drives will be available in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, and 128GB and 256GB capacities at prices yet to be announced, with production expected to begin in early 2010.
