Toshiba Shows off First 512GB SSD

Toshiba's second-gen SSDs dwarf existing drives in both size and blazing speed.

If you thought your 400GB MP3 and movie collection meant you would never move to a solid-state drive for your next notebook, think again. Thanks to a new 512GB SSD from Toshiba, size will no longer hold you back – but your wallet still might.

Toshiba revealed its massive new drives on Thursday, the first of their kind to pack 512GB of storage into a 2.5-inch SSD. They represent the largest of Panasonic’s new second-generation SSDs, which are based on multi-level-cell technology and will see a number of improvements, from faster operating speeds to better reliability and wear leveling. Toshiba claims they will be able to read at an amazing 240MB per second, and write only slightly slower, at 200MB per second.

Other drives in the new line will go to down to 64GB in capacity, and several will adopt the smaller 1.8-inch form factor.

Samples of the second-gen drives will be available to during the first quarter of 2009, but Toshiba doesn’t expect to ramp up mass production until the second quarter. Given the existing price of 256GB SSDs (which approach $1,000,) we don’t expect the 512GB variants to be cheap.