Micron announced the RealSSD C300 with 6Gbps SATA support early in December. It partnered with the Marvell Technology Group to create a new proprietary controller that will be used exclusively with Micron’s latest generation of SSDs. The controller supports the use of ONFI 2.1 34nm NAND flash memory sourced from IMFT, Micron’s joint venture with Intel.
The drive is able to reach a sustained sequential read speed of 355 MB/s, and a sustained sequential write speed of 215 MB/s. It is also much faster than Intel’s 160GB X25-M as seen in the attached graphs. Testing was conducted by Calypso Systems, an independent third party tester, and shown to DailyTech today at Storage Visions.
“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 for Micron in December.
Many consumers have heard of Lexar Media, the consumer branch of Micron Technology which includes Crucial branded products. Crucial will be the first to launch the new SSD, branding it the Crucial RealSSD C300. It will start to ship to the channel in late January, and will be available for sale in early February.
“We’ve had tremendous response from the industry since we introduced the Micron RealSSD C300 drive in early December, and we’re eager to get it into the hands of consumers,” said Justin Sykes, Micron’s Director of SSD marketing. “With its award-winning service and support, and global reputation for excellence, Crucial is the ideal brand to deliver our latest RealSSD consumer drive.”
The RealSSD C300 will be available in 128 and 256GB capacities, and will be packaged in the standard 2.5-inch form factor. A five-year limited warranty will be standard. Crucial is also considering bundling the drive with cloning software for those who wish to transfer their files and settings, and a desktop bundle may include a mounting bracket.
“The Crucial RealSSD C300 drive is the fastest drive we’ve tested to date,” said Robert Wheadon, Lexar Media’s senior worldwide SSD product manager. “The big ‘wow’ factor for consumers is a marked improvement in boot-up times – the Crucial RealSSD C300 drive is blazing fast, like no other SSD we’ve ever seen in the Crucial Performance Lab.”
While Crucial will focus on consumer sales, Micron itself will focus on the tough OEM SSD market currently dominated by Samsung, Toshiba, and Intel. OEM sales will focus on both 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch models for notebooks and netbooks, but the embedded market is also an option. Micron expects that its newest SSDs will available as option in computers by the time the busy back-to-school shopping season swings around.
