Micron Technology  has a new generation of RealSSD solid state drives (SSDs) for enterprise computing and notebook applications. The new drives use 50-nm NAND flash technology.

Micron said it is also developing SSD drives based on its recently-announced, 34-nm NAND process technology. Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron, said the newer 50-nm products, dubbed the RealSSD line, are geared for both the enterprise computing and notebook applications. He claimed the enterprise-class RealSSD P200 and the client-focused RealSSD C200 provide a dramatic improvement in capacity, power and performance for the applications they serve.

The two primary barriers to broad market acceptance of SSDs are cost and the ongoing performance improvements of RAID storage systems.

The SSDs are expensive. A budget 120 GB SuperTalent MasterDrive MX goes for about $575, and a 60 GB model for $395. They offer real benefits to notebook owners. The two most obvious reasons for buying an SSD are:

Light weight; A 40 GB conventional drive weighs 95g (3.35 oz); a 160 GB drive weighs 120g (4.23 oz). The 60 GB MasterDrive weighs 60g (2.11 oz); the 120 GB model 66g (2.33 oz).

Low power consumption; Notebook battery life is a big deal. A conventional drive draws around 0.8W at idle, up to a maximum of 2.3W (seek average) or 2.1W (read/write average). Most SSDs draw about 1.0W at idle (some of the more expensive models draw as little as 0.1W), but only 1.2W at peak rates (read/write average; there’s no seek on an SSD!). Real world studies show power consumption dips between 8% and 12% for an SSD versus a normal disk, and translates into a similar boost for notebook battery life.

SSDs deliver order-of-magnitude performance improvements, enhanced reliability and lower power consumption than contemporary physical disk drives. SSDs do this by eliminating the mechanical delays associated with traditional spinning disks, delivering more bandwidth, and mitigating write penalties by leveraging algorithms that optimize parallel activity.

Joseph Unsworth, an analyst with Gartner, said Micron has finally delivered a competitive product for both the notebook and server markets based on the performance cited. The next-generation SSD solutions are aimed at these two markets, but realistically both markets won't begin to have a meaningful impact until 2010 and beyond. Let's hope quoting the illustrious Gartner organization doesn't get our publisher, Mike Magee, onto his warpath about predictor companies being rarely correct.

Avian Securities recently found that the rate of returns on SSD-based notebooks from one major manufacturer ranges from 20-to-30 percent. Dell confirmed that it was the manufacturer named in the report.

Dell has reportedly back-pedalled from those claims. Micron's Justin Sykes, director of marketing for SSD products, characterized the report from Avian as inaccurate, saying that the claims are unfounded.

Micron's RealSSD P200 (PC version) has an internal DRAM just like an Enterprise SSD does. It's just a smaller DRAM, so the drive can be cheaper. This is key to making an SSD that performs well in the PC. P200 offerings range in density from 16 GBs to 128 GBs and are available in a standard 2.5-inch form factor. Based on 50-nm single-level cell (SLC) NAND technology, the P200 provides 3Gb/s SATA-based sequential read and write speed of up to a maximum of 250 megabytes per second.

The P200 consumes about one-tenth the power of a typical data centre hard drive, operating at 2.5 watts in active mode and under at 0.3 watts in idle.

In 2009, Micron will expand its SSDs, based on 34-nm MLC and SLC technology. Intel and Micron recently leap frogged the competition and claimed the technical lead in the NAND flash memory market.

However, no one wants to admit the first generation solid-state drives are having problems and buyers are paying the cost of being early adapters of the new SSD technology. X