Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of flash memory, has unveiled its new solid-state drives (SSDs) aimed at enterprise uses that deliver unprecedented performance as well as very low power consumption. Besides, the new SSDs offer pretty large capacities as well as data encryption for those who need it.

The new Samsung 100GB solid-state drive based on single-level cell (SLC) flash memory and designed for enterprise users features 230MB/s sequential read speed and 180MB/s sequential write speed. The new SSDs can process 25 thousand IOPS (input/output per second operations) random read speed and random write speed of 6 thousand.

While the new drives are fast, they still cannot beat Intel Corp.’s X-25E enterprise-class SSDs with 250MB/s write speed and 170MB/s read speed that boast with 35 thousand/3.3 thousand read/write input/output per second operations.

But while the Intel X25E SSDs from Intel are only available in 25GB capacities, Samsung’s new solid state option for enterprises features rather overwhelming 100GB capacity.

“We have created a very reliable drive for data centers with high-performance, high-endurance and sharply reduced power consumption requirements, plus tremendous long-term value when the total cost of ownership is analyzed. Our new enterprise SSD offers CIOs and IT managers the ability to greatly improve storage reliability and capacity while avoiding costly power and AC infrastructure upgrades in data centers at or near capacity,” said Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing at Samsung Semiconductor.

Servers with high-rpm hard-drive solutions lead to increased power bills and larger carbon footprints, while posing greater difficulties when expanding a data center.

Samsung’s enterprise SSDs use 1.9W of power in active mode and 0.6W in idle mode, minimizing power and heat loads. These “green” ratings tower over typical 15K rpm HDDs, which consume between 8W to 15W in active mode and 1W to 2W in idle mode. Intel declares 2.4W “low active power” for its X-25E.

Samsung’s 100GB SSD’s advanced performance is attributed to a sophisticated 8-channel controller, improved NAND flash and special drive firmware, all developed by Samsung. A single Samsung 100GB SSD can replace multiple hard drives in high performance applications and comes complete with full data encryption.

Tags: Samsung, Intel, SSD