The company also announced a family of fast read/write SSDs built around the 43-nanometer multi-level cell (MLC) NAND used in the 512GB. The drives are intended for notebooks, gaming and home-entertainment systems, and the entire line will be presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.

Advanced Multi-Level Cell Controller

In addition to the 512GB SSD, Toshiba's new family includes capacities of 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. They come in 1.8-inch or 2.5-in drive enclosures, or as flash modules. The company said this generation of SSDs uses an advanced MLC controller to obtain higher read/write speeds, parallel data transfers, and wear leveling for increased performance and higher reliability.

The new drives have a top sequential read speed of 240Mbps, a write speed of 200Mbps, faster times for booting and application loading, and AES data encryption.

Toshiba Vice President Kiyoshi Kobayashi said the new SSD family "balances value/performance characteristics for its targeted consumer applications, through use of MLC NAND and advanced controller architecture." Samples of the new drives are expected in the first quarter of next year, and mass production by the second quarter. Pricing has not yet been indicated.

A Growing Product Category

SSDs are a growing product category. Toshiba has noted that market analysts expect SSDs will become about 10 percent of the market for notebook computer storage by 2010, and 25 percent by 2012.

The rapid adoption of SSDs has been projected for some time. A 2007 report from research firm iSuppli predicted that 60 percent of laptops sold by the end of next year would have SSDs.

SSDs have been more expensive per gigabyte than hard-disk drives, but, as their capacities increase, they have become increasingly attractive to road warriors and other users for whom their durability and reliability are worth the added cost. Some analysts have noted that SSD prices are dropping quickly, especially for the smaller capacities.

A capacity such as 64GB may be sufficient for some business users, but consumers need substantially more to store music, photos and video. To date, the nearest capacity competitors are from Samsung, with a 256GB SSD, and Micron, whose 256GB is coming out in the first quarter.

With no moving parts, SSDs are silent, generate little heat, and can handle shocks and vibrations more effectively than standard hard drives. Data-transfer rates can be faster than hard drives, and booting a large operating system such as Windows Vista can be quick work for SSDs. In addition, SSDs consume less power compared to traditional hard drives and are lighter.