Latest SSHDs with NAND capabilities deliver high capacity and speed

Equipped with proprietary 19nm second-generation NAND flash memory (NAND), Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) has unveiled its new solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) series. The MQ02ABD100H SSHD offers 1TB capacity in a drive 9.5mm high, while the MQ02ABF050H offers a capacity of 500GB in a 7mm high form factor. The SSHDs deliver superior performance compared to a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) because the drives feature NAND that is used as the secondary cache during operation. This means customers see improvement to the drive’s performance compared to an HDD, while still maintaining the equivalent capacities of traditional HDDs. The MQ02ABD100H and MQ02ABF050H are suitable for high-performance PCs like mainstream and gaming PCs, while the MQ02ABF050H's height of 7mm makes it suitable for ultra-thin or ultra-portable computing devices. The new generation SSHDs merge the NAND controller function into the main HDD controller chip. This all-in-one system on chip (SoC) for the MQ02ABD/ABF-H series enables more integrated management of the HDD and NAND operation compared to previous SSHDs (MQ01ABD-H and MQ01ABF-H series) that featured separate NAND and HDD controller chips. As the inventor of NAND and a leader in HDDs, Toshiba has the engineering expertise to combine NAND, HDD and SSD technologies to develop and produce SSHDs. Toshiba’s NAND controller technologies unleash the NAND capabilities such as defective block management, ECC (Error Correction Code), conversion of logical block address, and wear-leveling. This new generation SSHD also offers compatibility in both physical size and interface with a traditional 2.5-inch HDD. In other words, SSHDs allow for improved physical space efficiency within a system compared to alternatives that use a discrete SSD cache drive alongside an HDD. When using SSHDs, systems can access the drive through a single interface without the need for specific device driver software. Because it is a single unit, the SSHD is a lower cost alternative to SSDs while offering similar performance. Sample shipments will begin from February 2015, says the company.