Toshiba NAND Flash Drive to Replace HDD in Tough Operating Environments

1 October, 2001


Same form factor and interface as Hard Disk Drive Combined with Greater Resistance to Vibration, Dust and Humidity

Tokyo--Toshiba Corporation today announced a series of solid-state NAND Flash Drives designed to replace hard disk drives in applications susceptible to vibration and shock. The drives are offered in the same form factors as the most widely used HDD and are compatible with the Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), the controller interface between HDD and information equipment. The new NAND Flash Drives are expected to find early application in such equipment as point-of-sales systems, automated teller machines and factory-automation systems.

The new drives offer memory capacities ranging from 16 megabytes (MB) to 2 gigabytes (GB). Commercial samples are available from today and mass production will start from October 2001 at monthly volume of 2,000 units.

NAND flash memory is a high speed, highly reliable storage solution that has already found widespread application in digital still cameras and MP3 audio players. Recent advances in capacity and cost competitiveness now position NAND flash as a complementary technology to magneto-mechanical data storage on HDD. While technological advances continue to improve on the robustness of the mechanical systems of HDD, they still remain susceptible to shock and repetitive vibration in severe environmental conditions. The solid-state NAND Flash Drive is resistant to such shock and vibration, and also highly resistant to temperature, humidity, dust and magnetism.

Toshiba has built its NAND Flash Drive to match the dimensions, the form factor, of 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch HDD, the most popular sizes, a move supporting easy integration into current products. The capacities of the new products, from 16MB to 2GB, also meet a wide range of industrial demands, which do not require the increasingly large capacities of HDD.
With continued advances in capacity and miniaturization, Toshiba anticipates sustained growth in demand for NAND Flash Drive, to US$1.3 billion in 2003 and on to US$2.5 billion in 2005.

The new NAND Flash Drive will be exhibited at CEATEC Japan 2001 at Makuhari Messe from October 2 to October 6.


Development Background
Samples of New Products
Specifications


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