Toshiba SD memory cards, SSDs enable solid performance for CE

IRVINE, USA: Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (TAEC) will be on hand at International CES 2011 to demonstrate the company's latest SD memory cards and SATA solid state drive (SSD) offerings. Both families of products will be showcased at International CES 2011 in booth #11026 from January 6-9.

As the inventor of NAND Flash, Toshiba is advancing technology to enable the ultimate consumer experience. Scott Nelson, vice president, Memory Business Unit, Toshiba America Electronic Components, explained: "Mobility and performance top the list of requirements for today's users who have come to expect ruggedness, speedy boot times and consistently reliable performance from their devices. Ultra fast read and write speeds and faster access to content are also necessities for the on-the-go consumer, and Toshiba delivers all of these things, enabling the best possible consumer experience."

Toshiba's SD Memory Card line-up features high performance specifications that enable developers to use HD content in future generations of consumer products. With cards that offer the world's fastest read and write speeds in their class, Toshiba continues to lead the NAND flash memory market in removable card storage.

With read speeds up to 95MB/s and write speeds up to 80MB/s on devices supporting the high-speed SD bus interface UHS-I (Speed ModeSDR104), Toshiba's new SDHC UHS-I cards provide fast data transfer rates essential for applications such as high speed continuous shooting of high resolution digital still cameras, video and high speed transfers of HD content.

For example, a 2.5 hour HD movie (10GB) can be written in about 2 minutes, compared to 43 minutes for a Class 4 SDHC card from the previous generation. In addition, Toshiba's SDXC UHS-1 cards provide up to 64GB of storage capacity to meet the needs of a wide range of consumer electronics applications.

Also on display at International CES 2011 is Toshiba's family of SATA SSDs, which offer improved performance, reliability and increased capacities in a smaller form factor – thus freeing designers to be more innovative in bringing products to market.

Toshiba offers some of the highest capacity, smallest form factor modules in the industry to date. Ideally suited for integration into space-sensitive products, including tablet PCs, laptops, mini-mobile and netbook PCs as well as any number of OEM and industrial applications, the new modules help these devices achieve innovative form factors.

"Consumers truly reap the benefits of SSDs," noted Nelson, "In the consumer space, using SSDs makes products more mobile and portable – smaller and slimmer. This is great news for the on-the-go consumer. SSDs truly give a performance edge. Ruggedness and reliability are also increased, bringing confidence to users that rely on these products in so many different aspects of their lives."

As a demonstrative example of the durability and ruggedness of its NAND flash technology, Toshiba will display an SSD operating while submerged in a 16 x 12 aquarium. Additionally, Toshiba will be giving a vibration and speed demonstration of its SSDs, in which dual PCs will be set up on a vibration table, one with an HDD and one with an SSD. Toshiba will demonstrate that the HDD will end up stopping when the table vibrates, whereas the SSD will remain fully functional.

Toshiba will continue to promote innovations that widen the horizons of the NAND Flash market and support the company's continued leadership in that market. As such, Toshiba is generating demand for SSDs in notebook PCs, netbooks, laptops, and digital consumer products by enhancing its line-up, offering products with various densities and interfaces in a range of packages - while also advancing device performance.