History (1998): Quantum, M-Systems and SanDisk Persevere in SSDs

Quantum continues to invest in SSDs, a niche market that nonetheless remains lucrative compared to that of HDDs, particularly since there are few competitors.

Quantum uses volatile DRAM modules that require a battery for data retention.

No so for SanDisk or MSystems, who opted for flash chips.

Even if solid-state technology is still a long way from the price-per-megabyte of HDDs, the prices of the disks are clearly going down.

Quantum was one of the first to use 64Mb DRAM modules in its SSDs, which allows it to offer 3.5-inch form-factor solutions of 1.07 and even 1.6GB, or twice the capacity of the previously announced 3.5-inch SSDs. Like other members of its Rushmore Ultra family, they have an Ultra SCSl-3 interface. The specs are impressive with a data access time of less than .06ms, throughput of up to 8,000 I/Os requests per second, and sustained transfer rate of more than 30MB/s. Suggested retail prices are $28,000 for the 1.07GB version and $39,000 for the 1.6GB model, which means respectively $26 and $24 per megabyte, a reduction in price due to the plummeting costs of DRAMs.

Until now, flash memories were mainly integrated in PCMCIA cards. Actual flash disk offerings, in either IDE or SCSI interface, were confined to a few small firms.

On March 31, the two main competitors in flash cards, for as long as anyone can remember, M-Systems and SanDisk, both announced veritable flash disks to replace HDDs in specific applications (networking, industrial computers, telecommunications, gaming, military, avionics, point-of-sales, embedded systems) that only require low-capacity storage.

For SanDisk, the new devices are 2.5-or 3.5-inch FlashDrives with capacities running from 10 to 500MB, using the standard IDE interface. Pricing has dropped there too, since SanDisk is asking, in OEM quantities, $150 ($3.75 per megabyte) for a 40MB flash disk. Volume shipments will start in June.

M-Systems, meanwhile, is offering 2 FFD-250 models in 2.5-inch form-factor, the first with ATA-3 interface, the second with SCSl-2, in capacities from 16 to 272MB. Sustained speed is 3.4MB/s for write and 3.6MB/s for read for the SCSI model. The DDD-250 is shipping in quantities, with a 672MB version priced at $3,615 ($5.4 per megabyte) in OEM Q1,000. M-Systems already offered a line of 3.5-inch SCSl-2 flash disk, the FFD, with capacities from 16MB to 1,792GB, with 0.1ms access time, sustained read of 2.8MB/s and sustained write of 2.0MB/s, not to mention an impressive 3.4 million-hour MTBF. The 1,792MB version is priced at $10,000 in Q1,000 ($5.6 per megabyte). Incidentally, M-Systems has just signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft for the inclusion of its DiskOnChip and linear flash drivers in Windows CE OS.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 123 on April 1998 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.