SanDisk Unleashes World’s Fastest MLC Solid-State Drive (SSD) Family

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today unveiled its third-generation family of solid-state drives (SSDs). Using multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory technology, SanDisk’s G3 Series establishes new benchmarks in performance and price-performance leadership in the SSD industry.

Designed as drop-in replacements for hard-disk drives (HDDs) in notebook PCs, the initial members in the SanDisk G3 family are SSD C25-G3 and SSD C18-G3 in the standard 2.5” and 1.8” form factors, respectively, each available with a SATA-II interface. Available in capacities of 60, 120 and 240GB*, the unit MSRPs are $149, $249 and $499, respectively.

The G3 SSDs are more than five times faster than the fastest 7,200 RPM HDDs and more than twice as fast as SSDs shipping in 2008, clocking in at 40,000 vRPM¹ and anticipated sequential performance of 200MB/s read and 140MB/s write³. The G3 SSDs provide a Long-term Data Endurance (LDE) of 160 terabytes written (TBW) for the 240GB version, sufficient for over 100 years of typical user usage.^(2,3)

“SanDisk’s G3 SSD has met the demand of a 120GB SSD at less than $250 with an exceptional user experience,” said Rich Heye, sr. vp and general manager, Solid State Drives (SSD) business unit, SanDisk. “Three key features developed by SanDisk enable this new design: a new SSD algorithm called ExtremeFFS^TM allows random write performance to potentially improve by as much as 100 times over conventional algorithms; reliable 43nm multi-level cell (MLC) all bit-line (ABL) NAND flash; and SanDisk’s new SSD controller, which ties together the NAND and the algorithm.”

“With large capacities and aggressive pricing, SSDs are poised to enter mainstream corporate notebooks in 2009,” Heye explained. “Given the current economic environment, corporate IT managers have also described a desire to extend the service life of existing notebooks. These notebooks are already maxed out on DRAM, and struggle to meet users’ performance expectations. These existing WinXP notebooks can be upgraded to a 60GB SSD for $149, resulting in a system that frequently outperforms a new notebook with a HDD, thereby delaying the need for large capital purchases.”

“Web-Feet Research has tested the replacement of the HDDs in three year old Notebooks with SSDs and has found an improvement in boot times, application loading and general user responsiveness that, in many cases, exceeds what a new notebook with an HDD can deliver,” said Alan Niebel, Principal at Web-feet Research. “In these challenging economic times, IT managers are looking for ways to reduce IT spending without adversely affecting their user base and the SanDisk G3 SSD solution extends the notebook replacement cycle an additional two years at minimal cost.”

The SanDisk G3 SSDs will be available to this market in mid 2009, in a 2.5” PATA configuration expressly for this purpose. In addition, the SanDisk G3 SSDs will be available on sandisk.com for do-it-yourself (DIY) enthusiasts. “An SSD upgrade improves the user experience like nothing else you can do to a computer,” Heye concluded.

SanDisk’s flash technology is produced at fabrication plants in Yokkaichi, Japan, where SanDisk and its partner, Toshiba Corporation, share the output. The SSD controller and firmware were designed by SanDisk expressly for the G3 SSD.

If you would like to learn more about flash and the significant role that it plays inside laptops and other consumer electronic devices, please visit SanDisk’s SSD Academy at http://www.sandisk.com/ssd. Here you can learn about solid state drives and the great promise they present to the computing market.

About SanDisk

SanDisk Corporation, the inventor and world’s largest supplier of flash storage cards, is a global leader in flash memory – from research, manufacturing and product design to consumer branding and retail distribution. SanDisk’s product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise; embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for computers. SanDisk (www.sandisk.com/corporate) is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company, with more than half its sales outside the United States.

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SanDisk’s product and executive images can be downloaded from http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/media.asp

SanDisk’s web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com

SanDisk and the SanDisk logo are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries.

ExtremeFFS^TM is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s).

*1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes, 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes.

Performance based on internal testing and projections, may vary depending on host device.

1. vRPM (virtual Revolutions Per Minute) - a metric to compare SSD performance in client PCs with the HDD and with other SSDs. vRPM = 50 / ((0.5 / 4kB random read IOPS) + 0.5 / 4kB random write IOPS))

2. LDE (Long-term Data Endurance) - an industry metric, introduced by SanDisk, that quantifies how much data can be written to an SSD in its lifespan expressed in terabytes written (TBW). Data is written using typical PC transfer size pareto, written at a constant rate over the life of the SSD, and data is retained for at least 1 year upon LDE exhaustion. Based on SanDisk internal measurements, a typical client PC user writes 4GB/day.

3. SanDisk C25-G3 and C18-G3 SSD Performance: anticipated performance based on SanDisk internal estimates and projections. 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes; 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes

a) Performance is characterized using some or all of the following tools

b) H2BENCH 3.6; average access time = average seek time + average latency time

c) IOMETER 2003.12.16

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including expectations for new product introductions, technology measurement standards, applications, markets, and customers that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others: the proposed standards may not be adopted by the market, market demand for our products may grow more slowly than our expectations or there may be a slower adoption rate for these products in new markets that we are targeting, and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We do not intend to update the information contained in this press release.