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Modern laptop users demand SSDs for their laptops due to their inherently faster seek time and shock-proof nature.  With that in mind, Toshiba has recently announced a boost in its SSD and Flash Modules line-up, satisfying laptop and netbookusers.

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Buffalo has recently introduced their latest portable storage solution, the MicroStation. The new drives come in a variety of storage options to include 32, 64 and 100GB and the exciting part is they are solid state drives. As of now pricing and an availability date have not yet been announced, but we can tell you that these portable SSD’s will be USB-powered and feature the USB cable in a wrap around style, which means it will not get lost in your gear bag, or even worse forgotten at home. Other features of the new SSD based MicroStation drives include a shock resistant chassis and a data transfer rate of up to 35 MB/s as well as as included Secure Lock Ware encryption software and Memeo backup software.

Product [Buffalo] Via [iTechNews]

With consumer’s growing interests in the so called ultra-low cost PC (ULPC) market, it seems only logical for data storage companies to take advantage of the situation and come up with something that is very essential for most ULPCs available on the market today. We’re talking about solid state drives (SSD), and SanDisk has come up with its 16GB pSSD to add to its line-up of flash-memory based SSD’s.

In addition to the 16GB model, SanDisk’s new pSSD is also available with 4 and 8GB capacities. Regardless of which model you get, the SanDisk pSSDs all boast a 39mbps read speed and 17mbps write speed. The SanDisk pSSD’s were built using multi-level Cell and Single-Level Cell flash memory.

If you’re wondering about the pSSD’s other features, we are glad to inform you that the pSSD are packed inside a memory device which is 1/10 of the weight of a 1.8-inch HDD. The pSSD is also rugged, reliable and fast, is also utilizes a standard low power interface and form factor. These new pSSD’s from SanDisk should definitely help boost the popularity of future ULPC’s.

Via [Electronista]

It was only a couple of months ago when we said that Samsung was planning to roll out a new 256GB SSD by 2009. And look what we have here right now, Samsung just announced its new ultra-fast 256GB SSD. Yes, folks Samsung was really dead serious in upgrading its previously released 128GB model with this new higher capacity flashSSD.

The 256GB flashSSD doubles the reading speed of the 128mpbs model with its own 200mpbs sequential data reading speed. Even better is its writing speed which now runs at 160MB per second as compared to the 70mbps writing speed of the previous model. And not only is the 256GB SSD ultra fast, but it is also enclosed in an ultra-thin chassis which measures only 9.5mm in thickness.

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We first learned about Crucial prepping SSD’s in both a 32GB and 64GB size back in early January, but at the time we were yet to learn about any pricing or a time frame for an actual release. Well it turns out the drives are now shipping and although they would make a nice upgrade for alot of notebooks on the market, their price is going to be a barrier for many folks.

The 32GB model is retailing for $800, while the 64GB is a whopping $1,500. Its a shame because the drives are the notebook-sized 2.5-inch, which means, assuming you were comfortable enough to open up your notebook, would make a perfect replacement or upgrade drive.

While the whole SSD craze is relatively new, its fair to say that with time, just like any other new technology the price will quickly fall to a more reasonable level. One thing is for sure though, given the price of the drives from Crucial, the $1,000 MacBook Air upgrade option seems cheap, or at least fairly priced.

Via [Wired]

For our German friends, Cizmo is already popular with its production of high-end notebooks. It’s no wonder they were able to come up with a powerful laptop such as the recently released Cizmo CX15. Just don’t mind the hefty price that you have to pay for this computing machine, which is roughly around $2,400, as it may be well worth all its nifty features.

These features include an Intel Core 2 Duo processor which can either be the 2.26GHz P8400, 2.4GHz P8600 or the 2.53GHz P9400. The CX15 is also loaded with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics card, DDR3 RAM, optional Blu-ray drive, eSATA port and 32 or 64GB SSD drive. The CX15 laptop will hit the European market sometime in June, no word yet on whether it will see the light of day in the US market.

Product [Cizmo] Via [Engadget]

It seems that Asus has added a unique storage option on the Eee PC 900. It turns out that users will get a total of either 12GB or 20GB of storage depending on their operating system of choice. The Windows models will have an 8GB SSD and the Linux based models will have a 16GB SSD, both models will also have a 4GB SSD that is soldered to the motherboard. The systems are set up where the 4GB drive is the master and used for the operating system by itself, with the secondary (and larger) drives being used for personal storage.

While this sounds like a unique option I can only imagine the confusion that it could potentially cause anyone that is less than technical. But on the upside, anyone who is willing to open the case up and do some tinkering should be able to upgrade their storage with ease. By having an SSD dedicated to the operating system and system files, users can upgrade their storage and not even have to re-install the operating system.

Via [jkkmobile]

Toshiba has added a new notebook to its product catalog, the Portege R500-12Q. The new Toshiba notebook is being touted by the company as the world’s lightest notebook weighing just a mere 2.15-pounds (by standard notebook weight, which pretty much is light indeed). Toshiba is also brandishing the Portege R500-12Q as the only notebook with the slimmest optical drive at 7mm, the world’s first notebook with the transflective LED 12.1-inch widescreen display and one of the world’s thinnest notebooks at 0.76/1.0-inches in height.

Aside from being the first in so many notebook aspects, it will be important to note the Portege R500-12Q is packed with a whooping 128GB SSD. In simple terms, that’s tons of storage capacity for a notebook of this caliber. Other features of the Portege R500-12Q include; Core 2 Duo ULV U7700 processor, 2GB RAM, dual-layer DVD writer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and pretty much other standard notebook fare.

The Toshiba Europe site did not specify pricing information yet for this new notebook baby. The “where to buy” link is not pointing to anywhere as well.

Product [Toshiba] Via [Engadget]

Solid State Drives, or SSD, are the up and coming solution to the moving parts problem of current hard drives. Based on flash technology, the read/write times of SSDs are flat out blazing.

An Intel R&D group, headed up by Knut Grimsud, is responsible for developing new storage technologies, one of them being solid state drives. In the 2nd quarter of this year, Intel will likely make an announcement regarding these same drives. At the moment, Intel offers a chip for storage for end users, albeit one with a relatively small capacity. Small, in today’s sense, meaning up to 16GB’s.

Intel’s purported 2nd quarter announcement will reveal Intel’s intent to launch 1.8 and 2.5-inch solid state drives. These drives are expected to range in sizes from 80 to 160GB. Look for more as it happens.

Via [Crave]

Super Talent has launched the world’s slimmest 256GB solid state drive (SSD) – the FSD56GC25H. This new SSD aside from having a really long model number is only 12.5mm (0.49-inches) thick, making it the thinnest among the crop of SSDs available on the market today.

Aside from its thin dimension, Super Talent still managed to adhere to the industry standard 2.5-inch hard drive form factor. These standards include SATA-I interface and 100% interchangeability with conventional 2.5-inch SATA HD. It also sports Super Talent’s patented stacking technology in storing data files. The FSD56GC25H (whew!) drive also supports 0.1ms access time, 65MB/sec sequential read speed and 50MB/sec sequential write speed. It supports up to 1600G of shock and 16G of vibration, making it five times greater than normal hard drives. 

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