SanDisk announces 64 GB solid state drive for notebooks

SSD’s are on the rise, and it’s the best thing to happen to data storage since the hard disk drive. The advantages of SSD’s in all types of computing needs are excellent, and DAW workstations, both mobile and desktop, will benefit immensely. I could fill up a good deal of space naming all the benefits of SSD’s, but here are the key features: With no moving parts, they are far more durable and reliable than hard disk drives, they read and write at more than 5x faster, with 0.11 milliseconds access latency (compared with 17 milliseconds latency with HDDs), and use half the power HDDs do.

I started watching the SSD market closely a couple of months ago, and it has been progressing rapidly. It’s gone from 16 GB being the highest known of, to 64 GB approaching affordability. The best is yet to come, as there are already 512 GB SSD drives coming over the horizon, but only a secret agent budget would afford such, as the high-capacity drives are in the unreachable extremes of expensive.

SanDisk recently announced an increase in their 2.5″ and 1.8″ SSD drives from 32 GB to 64 GB. The 32 GB versions will be priced upwards of $300, but there’s no word on what the 64 GB version will cost. They’ll be offering engineering samples in Q3, but as production is scheduled for the end of this year, we probably won’t see these truly on the market until the beginning of 2008.

It is possible to get your hands on a 32 GB SSD right now for about $300-400, as Matt Mullenberg, Wordpress founder has done. I personally can’t wait to get one in my laptop, as I need the speed, but I’m going to have to wait until they’re easier to get ahold of.

(Via Engadget)